Infernal Machines
by Fate Hedgehog
Summary: It all starts when the Digi-destined run into Gennai...but it just gets worse as it gets better. Please R&R. Can you point out the first three (hint: remember the title)?
1. Default Chapter Title

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Infernal Machines

[Fate Hedgehog][1]

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Chapter One: "The Oasis"

[Time: About five days before the Digi-destined found Myotismon's castle and returned to Japan…]

The blistering sun was high in the sky as a group of fourteen individuals slowly trudged their way over the heated desert sand below them. There were no plants glowing nor even the most insignificant of animals scurrying about. It was completely barren. Dunes blocked the group's path as they crossed the searing sands that almost went on into infinity. Far off into the distance before them, the group could barely see the top-most turrets of the castle on a mountain high above them, although it was neither a clear image nor easy to make out among that shadows at the horizon.

"How much farther have we to go?"

"I already told you a minute ago, Mimi", Tai – the self proclaimed leader of the group – called behind to the almost completely-pink girl sprawling at the back-most part of the group. "We don't know yet."

"If I have to go any farther in this blistering heat, I'm sure to collapse. And my feet are killing me; it feels like we've been walking for hours and miles onto end", she started.

"Oh great, she's starting this again", the pessimistic Joe at the middle of the group said, understating the fact that this is the fifth time she's complained about the arid climate today.

"Don't bother her so much, Joe. Let her complain if she wants. I haven't been near water in days myself", Gomamon said from down at Joe's side, just pulling himself over the sands.

"Yeah, and you need water more so than even the rest of us", Agumon said to his right.

"Speak for yourself!" the plant-like Palmon said trudging just a step behind Mimi.

"Gabumon", Matt called over to his wolf Digimon, "How are you holding up?"

"I'm sure I'd do better if I hadn't to wear this fur."

"What about you, TK?" Matt then asked over to his younger brother.

"Well, I'd be going better too if Patamon wasn't resting on my head", he answered looking up at the two orange wings that hang over the edges of his cap from his orange, small Digimon sitting on his hat. "Well excuse me but I'd fly if my wings weren't all dried out and my legs can't carry me as fast as the rest of yours can."

"I didn't mean it that way."

"Oh."

"Tai", Sora said picking-up the pace – her Digimon, Yokomon – in her arms because she couldn't move as fast on her own, "This is not getting any better. We seem to just tread on and on and on. We can't keep going at this rate."

"And we need new supplies", Joe added-in picking through what remained of his utilities pouch slung over his shoulder, "We almost out."

"Of what?"

"Everything."

Yokomon stirred in Sora's arms and directed her voice to Tai: "Use your telescope and see if you can find anything." "Good idea, Yokomon; I almost forgot myself that Tai had one", Sora answered, looking down, and then looked up at Tai.

Tai smiled – he loved the way she always looked at him like that – but quickly snapped back. "Alright, everybody, take four-and-a-half!" Everyone else of the Digi-destined fell down to the sandy ground in a slump when they heard this; next you could almost hear them complain about the break being cut by that half-a-minute.

Tai turned around facing the way they were walking and pulled out his pocket telescope to scan-over the horizon. Not much but sand and more sand for miles around. The dark castle in the distance – even through the telescope – was blurred and hard to make out. He continued to sweep over the desert for anything aside from what they have been seeing for miles past, coming-up empty many times. But then he came over something that caught his eye. He was so caught off-guard by it that he wiped off his eye once and looked again to make sure it WAS actually there and not an illusion.

"Whoa! Out of place!" Tai said, still eyeing the sight.

"What is it?" Sora asked.

"Hopefully a Seven-Eleven, with this weather", and everyone looked at Mimi. "Well, wouldn't it be too much to hope for in this wild place?" This was passed over by everyone but Palmon who asked: "What's a 'Seven-Eleven'?"

"What did you find, Tai?" Agumon asked coming up to the holder of his Digivice.

"Yeah, what do you see: don't leave us hanging", Matt also said being followed by Gabumon up to the slowly growing group in front of the reclining Digi-destined.

"Well, either the sun's getting to me worst than I thought or I spy an oasis!"

"An oasis?! Where!! Just point me in the direction!" Mimi said barging into the group, almost knocking over Matt. She was pulling Palmon along for the ride.

TK came running up too. "An oasis! Aw, cool! Is it close, I hope." "What's an 'oasis'?" Patamon asked from on top of his hat. "A very beautiful place where plants grow and has a lake with water is in the middle of a desert like this."

Joe probably would've joined them in a heart-beat too but he was just getting-up from re-packing his supplies pouch. "Water? Good, we need that the most. We've over-used our supply the past few days."

"And I need a swim", Gomamon said besides him. Then he sniffed the air in Joe's general direction during a big breath. "Come to think of it, so do you." Joe just looked at him sarcastically as he stood: "Ha ha. That was just too funny to laugh at, Gomamon."

"It's off this direction some dozen yards", Tai said putting his telescope away. With a wave of his hand he called, "Come on everybody! Let's go!"

And with that, the Digi-destined and their Digimon began running the direction that Tai had pointed them in. They started off galloping across the hot sand. They were on the slope of a dune so it was easier than if they had to climb. But they didn't get far before Tai looked over his shoulder and then called out, "Hold it!"

Tai, Agumon and Sora stopped just bumping into each other at the head of the group. Everyone else stopped too but they tripped over the person before them and very soon everyone but the first three had fallen on the sand in a pile. "Hey, what gives, Tai?" Matt asked.

"Oh, my dress – it's all sandy", Mimi complained. "Next time warn us before you call 'stop' all of a sudden like that."

Tai turned around and thumbed behind them. "Oh, sorry. We have a straggler." Everyone looked back over their shoulders as they got back up and saw Izzy walking slowly behind them – eyes glued to the open laptop he held in his hands – and Tentomon behind them who was trying to get Izzy to move faster. They were both a good thirty to forty feet back.

"Hm…I can't seem to figure this out. That map I copied from Etemon's Sphinx doesn't point to there being this much of a desert in the area. Could I be looking at the wrong part of the map?" Izzy was saying to no one in particular as he walked.

"That is a good possibility. And I can tell you why: despite that part on the map, we ARE trudging through a desert!" Tentomon answered back in his sarcastic way.

"Well if that's not the problem, then certainly it's mechanical or operational. I should probably shut-down and then go into my computer to search for errors", Izzy said.

"I think you're already in that thing and not your body", Tentomon replied. "Now please try to concentrate and mind where you're going."

"Okay, okay, already", Izzy answered, finally closing-up the window-flap.

As they waited impatiently for Izzy and his Digimon to catch-up they collected themselves off the sand again. No real damage was done to anyone or anything really. Joe handed Mimi her hat that had fallen off when she tumbled on him. "Here you are, Mimi." "Oh, thanks", she answered and then turned the hat over to allow the sand to pour out before putting it back on.

Izzy eventually made it to the front of the group with Tai and Sora. "Okay, that wasted a good five minutes, let's keep moving", Tai answered to his arrival. Sora elbowed him and added: "We found an oasis to freshen-up at."

"An oasis?" Izzy asked as he reopened the laptop cover and started to clack away a bit. "That's funny, it's not on the map." Tai just rested his head in his hand and gave a signal to the others who had gotten themselves back up: "Let's move it out. We're almost there."

"Yeah, let's all go before we dehydrate or something by just standing out here", Matt said.

"I'm going for being 'baked' first", Patamon said.

While the others past him by Izzy remained there working to figure out where they actually were. Only Mimi had to pass Izzy now and, on passing, commented to him, "Come on, Brainiac, close that thing up. We're not going to wait about all day for you." At this, Izzy looked up from his screen and eyed Mimi as she walked away further down the dune. Why did everyone think him an over-intelligent know-it-all? For that matter, why did he put up with it? He knew he put up with it with Mimi only because he…

"Izzy, everyone's leaving. Shouldn't we also?", Izzy snapped out of his train of thought and quickly snapped his laptop shut, slinging it in his backpack and took pursuit of the group with Tentomon flying behind him. "Hey, Izzy wait for me."

The Digi-destined walked into the tropical dot in the desert with a bit of awe – they hadn't seen a live plant, excluding Palmon, in almost three days. Green grass covered the ground in a nice layer; seven palm-trees surrounded the place with two scattered within the perimeter; a nice blue lake was off-center to the entire paradise in a wasteland. A few rocks and small flowers were planted here and there.

"Whoa, its like we just passed into a whole different area of the planet", Agumon marveled.

"Yeah, I know; these things can have that effect on you if you stumble across them", Gabumon said to him walking up to a tree and looking at the coconuts in it. He licked his lips.

"Yeah, I'm sure we can really restock our stuff here." Joe immediately look for something to fill, shuffling through his bag.

"Yeah, this looks like a great place to pick ourselves up until we start moving-out again", Tai said.

"How long do you think we should stay here?" Sora asked putting Yokomon down on the ground.

"As long as we need to."

Palmon planted her roots into the soil to absorb some water but immediately figured something was different about this spot. "Hey, what gives?! There's no water in this…'soil'." Mimi came up to her friend: "Don't worry, Palmon, there's still a big lake of it right over there."

"Oh boy!" Palmon and Mimi were both just about to go for their 'fair share' first but they were stopped by TK calling from off to one-side of the lake. "Hey, guys, come over here and see what I've found!"

The group huddled their way from their activities to see what TK was looking at to the side of the lake. Mimi was the last to come. "Just one little sip first?" Palmon tugged her away though, for the moment, "Come on, Mimi, everyone's moving." "Oh, alright. But I'll be back once I see what this is about", she said almost warning the water directly.

The group, who was just then joined by Mimi, huddled over what looked like a metal dais low to the ground, jutting out from it – one of Gennai's communicators, no doubt. There were few features on it. The flat platform on the top of it was silvered and divided by rails into fifths. But, new to the design, the base of it near the sand was devised like a large, silver toothed gear. Also, small lights donned the top concave up until platform section.

"Whoa, another of Gennai's gizmos", Tai said leaning over it.

"You think he set this place up?" Matt asked.

"Well he's done just about everything but part the ocean to get us here to Serber, so why not", Gomamon said.

"Clearly this is another's design too", Izzy said coming up from behind the group. "Most of this one's features are different even to his design. Someone else probably uses this one too."

"Who'd use something like this out here, Izzy?" Gabumon asked.

"How should I know, I've never been out here before let alone to a continent known as 'Serber' ", Izzy said standing up. 

"Maybe it's a relic from an older civilization of Digimon…" Matt said.

"To think that this place would have such a history – that'd be pretty amazing", Sora said.

Patamon, flew off of TK's hat and down towards the silver-plated disk on top. "Pretty." 

But just as he was about to land the device powered-up, the lights on it flickering and blinking random colors and a hum coming from the machine. Patamon was startled and quickly pulled back, landing behind TK's leg and peering out at the machine. Slowly the gear form that seemed to dominate its base began spinning rapidly into a blur and turned out a low-level whine. The disk on top slowly lit-up and then burst upwards in a flash of very translucent rainbow light, forming an image. That image was of an old man, not too much bigger than any of the children huddled about the machine, in an purple and red suit of some sort with a large gray mustache.

"Greetings, kids; I was wondering when you'd arrive at this communicator", Gennai's transmission said hovering in the rainbow light, with his arms almost indefinitely folded behind his back.

"Gennai, it's nice to see you again. We were wondering if this was your communicator – it looks different from the others", Tai answered.

"Eh, ah yes. I had to make repairs to that model from this side of the transmission and didn't have much to work with."

"Repairs? That side of the transmission? But who made the repairs here?" Yokomon asked.

"You leave getting these devices up and working to me", Gennai said humble-like. "Meanwhile, you still have a ways to go through this desert, and I wanted to figure some way to get you kids' attention."

"So you just wanted to make sure we were still okay?" Joe asked.

"And to make sure you were still on the right path to the castle from where you were last, yes", Gennai added.

"So you set up this oasis to draw our attention and help us recover from and for the long walk, right?" Agumon asked, walking up aside Tai, closer to the image. But the response was different than they all expected from Gennai. "Huh? Oh…you mean this set-up", Gennai said in a rather lower tone.

"You almost think, the way he said that, that this isn't really real", Mimi said as Joe moved to lean against a palm.

"Actually, it isn't." 

Joe learned Gennai's point first-hand as soon as he reach the 'tree' and found that he fell right through it, crashing to the ground on the other-side. When he looked back up the tree was still there, but the part of it he fell through was flashing with static and going through his stomach. "These trees are holograms around here!" Joe announced swinging his palm through the fake image.

"Yes, er…(clearing his throat) Yes, this oasis is a hologram. I figured that it would do the best to get your attention out here", Gennai admitted.

Gomamon turned to the lake and began to bound as best his four-legged body could. "Well, I can still get a good swim in the lake before we leave, I'm sure of that!" Close enough, he took one more bound and then a long jump, flying towards the water. "Alley-oop!"

Gennai exclaimed: "That hologram was over-laid over a tar pit for convenience of location!"

"Gah!" Gomamon cried as he fell towards the hologram covering the tar-lake.

Joe yelled getting up, "Gomamon!"

Mimi cried quickly, "O' dear! Palmon, use your attack!"

Palmon turned and responded quickly, "POISON IVY!" 

Her lower tentacles – which usually functioned as fingers – shot out from the wrists of her arms and towards Gomamon's falling form. With lightning-fast reflexes, they grabbed Gomamon just within an inch of touching what would've been the holographic lake. Gomamon held in place for a moment before opening his eyes and realizing that he was being hung upside-down from his back feet just above tar with a deep sigh. She slowly retracted and brought Gomamon back to the shore, for fear of dropping him if she did it too fast.

"Sorry kids for getting your hopes up but I would've conditioned the image to make it look less realistic at close-range if I had the time", Gennai said looking around, although no one could actually tell if Gennai could see them and not just vice-versa. "Well, enough with this program already. It's causing more trouble than it's worth." 

After he had said that, the grass, tress and over-all greenery of the area about them – the entire oasis minus the communicator – began to fade in a field of static that covered the images. When if was done, any traces of their ever being an oasis were gone in a crack of electrical fielding and holograms. "Smoke and mirrors, it goes a long way…that is, used properly with projectors and magnets."

"Of course, Gennai", Sora said.

"Now then, can you tell us anything important?" TK asked.

"Oh, what do you want to know specifically?"

"How's about where we are? A name, maybe?" Matt said with his hands in his pockets.

"Okay, for starters I can tell you that you're in the Kog Desert. It used to be a thriving forest community but the desert from the north shifted here slowly over the years until it was replaced barren. Nowadays, the place itself isn't solidly mapped off with boundaries because the sand tends to shift a lot during the windy season. Sorry again, but I'm about as much help here as a befuddled old man."

"Is he?" Palmon whispered to Mimi, Gomamon having already been put down out of harm's way. Gennai side-looked towards her for a moment as Izzy reopened his computer and started the search again.

"Well thanks anyway, Gennai. Nice to see you're still watching out for us, but we can handle ourselves", Tai answered.

"You'll have to. You've only made it about one-third through the desert and there's a long sandy road ahead of you."

"Don't remind us", Gomamon said slumping, belly to the ground.

Gennai's image then began to flash in some static and distort slightly where it was projected. He seemed to be having similar visual responses on the other-side because he was looking about himself too in the same confused way. "This is a third 'sorry'. I must be having a bad communications lock with this holographer. I have to go now before I blow a fuse or my service charge rises. Just remember: 'use your greatest merits and what you have at hand'…not to mention always call collect." With that, his image zapped out of proportions, disappeared and the machine on the ground shorted to a stop.

"Service charge? Call collect?" Joe said looking over to Izzy, but was receiving little (no) answer.

"Well, everybody must have some calling restrictions", Mimi shrugged.

"Anyway, we're not going to be getting anywhere else just standing about here. There's nothing here. We'd better get back on the road", Tai said.

"Hold it, Tai", Izzy said, sitting down next to the dormant machine and plugging the telephone connection of his laptop into a socket on it. "I think this machine can still be of assistance to us."

"Oh, how?"

"Gennai might've turned-off this communicator but I think he just cut the transmission, not the power", Izzy started to explain while starting to type on his keyboard and the group slowly broke up to look about the immediate area. "Technical difficulties like he was experiencing could only have been achieved by satellite interference so that's how I figure he was communicating to us. I'm gon'na try to harness the capacity of the transmission dish of this holo-communicator to try and control one of Gennai's satellites by transmitting a rough 'Internet' activation signal."

"Oh, I see. You're going to try to get us an eye in the sky?" Sora asked, leaning down.

"That's what I think he said, but then I'm not good with 'computers' ", Yokomon said.

"If I can get control of one of Gennai's satellites then I can display a detailed image of the surrounding desert and determine if there's a safer, faster route to Myotismon's castle", Izzy said clacking away at his laptop diligently. "I just need a few minutes."

"I got that clear enough", Patamon said sitting up-right next to the communicator.

Agumon came up besides Tai. "But what if this side of the transmission was the one that gave him trouble?"

"At this point, hoping for the better end of the stick is worth the wait", Matt answered him.

"Okay everyone, looks like we're taking another four-and-a-half!" Tai called.

Mimi and Patamon were already seated – or rather, slumped forward – over what once was a crystal lake under the cloak of the oasis hologram; it was now a tar pit. Every quality of it was thick, black, crude, stagnant and it looked to have a shiny stickiness to it. Gomamon was just coming up from behind.

"Well, it looks like I'm not going to take a nice cool drink, am I?" Mimi said downhearted, staring at the blackness of the tar.

"Not unless you want your tongue to stick to the roof of your mouth permanently", Palmon said besides her.

"Well, I sure wouldn't want to take a swim in this black goop", Gomamon said stopping aside the 'lake'.

Joe came up besides him too, shuffling through his shoulder pouch. "Yeah, you'd suffocate stuck sinking in that gunk."

"Uh-huh. Thanks for stopping my fall, Palmon."

"Was nothing."

"Even if this was hot water, I wouldn't mind moistening my dry, aching feet", Mimi said aside.

Joe kneeled down after he finished shuffling through his bag and pulled out an empty bottle. He dipped it into the tar lake and started to fill the bottle. "Joe, what are you doing?" Gomamon asked, looking weirdly over at him.

"Taking a free sample." Joe lifted the bottle out of the tar and started to cap it and put it back in the pouch. "Hey, we may not be able to drink it, but you never know if this might come in handy."

"Just make sure to label that bottle", Mimi said over to him.

Meanwhile, Izzy and the rest of the gang near the holo-communicator were having a problem. Izzy was still frantically clacking away at the keys and everybody was seated about him waiting as patiently as they possibly could. The machine in the center had its lights blinking but nothing else was happening. "Hm…"

"What's wrong, Izzy?"

"I don't know, Tentomon. All the system parameters are correct; the hardware's all ready; the program turns-up one-hundred percent capable of transmitting on the diagnostics but its not activating."

Tentomon stood and put one of his fore-arms to his equivalent 'chin' but then placed both of them in the grooves between the teeth of the gear on the base of the machine. "Well, Izzy…maybe if…" With a good throw of his arms, he spun the gear once and then it began to spin rapidly on its own, slowly working back up to its old engine whine.

"Prodigious! A dynamo. Good thinking, Tentomon. Now, let's see what we can do with this satellite relay." Izzy continued to clack away as features, windows and operations clicked on and off his screen until finally he was left with a window showing a map of some sort. He stopped momentarily and twisted his face.

"What'cha got for us, Iz?"

"Darn."

"What's wrong? You can't get a satellite?" TK asked.

"Oh, I've got a satellite, yes; but it's only a low-grade weather-monitoring satellite. I was expecting something with a bit better quality", Izzy said as he started typing again, slower this time. "And, from the images it's sending me, it still looks like the shortest distance between two points is a straight line."

"I was afraid he'd say that", Matt commented.

"So we get back to walking?" Sora asked looking over to Tai.

"Yep." Everybody started to slowly standing-up.

"Wait a minute, guys. The weather detection systems are indicating stratocumulus quickly moving in from the north heading a front. We should be in for a storm if it keeps bearing", Izzy said.

"Well, that's good", Patamon said. "It's hard to come by rain in a desert."

"Normally, yes; but, these clouds show high traces of sulfuric and hydrochloric compounds held within them, as if they came from an industrial center", Izzy stated, expressing the up-most foreboding.

"What!?" Mimi exclaimed coming over to the group. "Oh, that's bad! That's terrible! That's horrible! That's, uh…what does it mean?" It was the best of Mimi's ramblings for the past few days, no arguments from anyone there.

"Acid rain", came Izzy's cold answer.

"Huh…Oh!!"

"What? No!" Matt said.

Tai stood firmly as everybody begin to get surprised and jumped at that. "Acid rain? Normal rain in a desert is wild enough, but acid? We've got to find cover."

"We're without protection out in the open like this during the storm. We can't just say here", Sora said slowly standing.

"Okay…don't panic! Maybe we can just make some sort of shelter to ride the storm out", Joe said, trying not to panic himself. "Out of what, Joe?" Gomamon asked down at his feet. "Well, we can cut down some of the palm…oh yeah, they were just holograms."

"Okay, scratch that. Anyone else have any ideas?" Palmon asked the group in general.

"Hey, Izzy, what's that there?" TK asked on the ground, pointing to a dot on Izzy's screen.

"What's what?"

"I think he means that color blotch on your map's screen, Izzy", Tentomon said pointing to the object a lot more clearly that TK did. Izzy looked closer and finally saw the small gray 'dot' on the map.

"Oh…I hadn't even noticed that", Izzy said beginning to type again. "Increasing magnification as much as I can…eureka. Hey guys, calm down and come over here!" Everybody turned back from what they were doing and came back over to Izzy, leaning over him to look at the close-up of the image on his screen. "Look at this: it appears to be some sort of structure in the middle of the desert some distance from here. I'm not promising the adequacy of this structure for a possible shelter against the acid rain…"

"But that's a risk well have to take!" Tai said, standing up-right again.

"It's not like we have a choice", Yokomon said.

"Which way is it?" Gabumon asked Izzy.

Izzy typed for a second and then turned, pointing a way aside the route to the castle in the distance. There were fast moving clouds moving in from the north just aside of that direction: "That way – due east. We'll have to risk the acid rain bath just to reach it in time, though. It should start sometime soon, while we're enroute."

"Then let's get moving before we get drenched and melt at the same time!" Joe exclaimed, now panicking. Izzy closed-up his laptop hurriedly and stood up, the connection cord yanking out of the socket on the transmitter and the machine slowly shutting-down.

Mimi to Palmon: "Will this activity include running? (There came a nod in affirmation from Palmon's direction) Ooo…I knew I should've brought running shoes to wear, not boots."

Just as everybody was getting up and preparing to go again, the tar pit literally burst from the pool it lay in. Globs of tar flew left and right, falling from the sky. Everyone covered-up and hoped that none would fall on them. Mimi and Joe fell down opposite the pit when it 'exploded'. From that part of the pit nearest the Digi-destined a large figure started to rise. The massive skeletal mass had tar slowly falling off of its form; a single red fleshy organ dominated the inside of the hunched figure's rib-cage. The skull was that of a horned demon with its red eyes aglow on the Digi-destined.

TK and Patamon, who was in his hands: "Gah! Skullgreymon!"

"What's he doing here!?" Agumon - his Digivolution descendent - exclaimed.

The beast quickly turned glance to the first two who had exclaimed with his arrival - TK and Patamon. With a roar it thrust out a bony, grasping hand at the two. Matt saw this and jumped at his little brother, grabbing him and Patamon and pulling them to one-side as the claw grasped nothing but sand.

"Stay away from my little brother!" Matt called to the monster, who had decide to go after another of the children as they started to scramble out of the way. The creature slashed across what would be the height of their heads but they all dropped out of the way beforehand as the hand swiped over them. Tai and Agumon turned-over from lying face-down in the sand to see the Skullgreymon winding-up for another swing.

"Agumon, go show him what you're made of!"

"Something strong, I hope", Agumon said as he stood up. One moment's pause and then he took a running start at the monster. The creature saw this and took a swipe that Agumon jumped over with ease. While he was in mid-air he attacked: "PEPPER BREATH!" The fireball he breath struck the Skullgreymon in the chin, but didn't even faze it. The creature just followed through with a swipe with the other claw and knocked the momentarily air-born Agumon falling back to Tai.

Gabumon quickly turned himself in a mid-dash and attacked the Skullgreymon in his own way: "BLUE BLASTER!" The skeletal creature absorbed the shot into its shoulder bone like nothing and turned towards the wolf Digimon. Gabumon fired another of his attacks at the creature and hit the chin, dead-center, knocking its head back. But it was a feign and the monster threw the head forward, firing a fireball from its mouth. Before Gabumon could do anything, he was knocked flying backwards into Matt's hands - him then to the ground.

"Excuse me!"

"Oof! No problem."

The creature next turned to Sora who was standing just some distance to the side of Matt and took a step out of the tar. Sora was clutching Yokomon scared as if it were a stuffed animal. The Skullgreymon threw its arm up and then threw it down again with a roar at the human and Digimon cowering there, fear-stricken at the moment. Tai, who was just left of Sora, jumped out from his spot towards her. "Sora!" He grabbed onto and pushed Sora, knocking them both out of the way of the claw which crashed down within only centimeters behind them.

Tentomon flew out from behind where Sora was positioned. "This thing may be ugly but…okay, okay: so it is ugly. SUPER SHOCKER!" The electrical attack struck the creature right in its chest but had no effect whatsoever. The Skullgreymon then tried to literally swat Tentomon out of the air but had little progress.

"Ah! Go away already, you stupid creature!" Mimi yelled at the top of her lungs from the other-side of the tar pits behind the creature. However, her scream was enough to get the monster to turn around and face her. Izzy was off to one side and Palmon was just besides Mimi, standing.

"Uh, Mimi…I wouldn't anger it anymore than it already is", Palmon said nervously to her human friend.

"Oh and why not? It bothered us first!" Mimi said looking over to her friend.

"That's why!" Izzy called out from aside them pointing to the creature. Mimi and Palmon looked and saw the monster moving his hands from what would be his ears - he obviously was not a fan of Mimi's voice - and going into a combination lunge-slash at the two. Mimi screamed, just making the monster more angry - and started to push herself backwards in the sand to avoid the swing. Palmon jumped forward, in front of Mimi and used her attack at the large hand. "POISON IVY!" She caught onto the four fingers of the bone hand and stiffened up, momentarily straining to stop the giant hand from crashing down on them within inches of actually doing so. She looked to be holding the hand up well for a the first two seconds but then fell down to one knee in strain.

"I…can't…hold…it up…forever!"

"Tentomon, front and center!" Izzy called to his Digimon zooming about the Skullgreymon's head. Tentomon changed course at Izzy's calling and turned to ram into Skullgreymon's claw. Gomamon was nearby and jumped to do the same (Joe had taken off already, wishing Gomamon the best of luck). Together they collided into the wrist and knocked the hand aside, Palmon and Mimi getting up and running for cover themselves. Tentomon then air-lifted Gomamon out of the way as the behemoth of a Digimon attached to the wrist came crashing forward out of the tar and falling face first into the sand with a crash.

"Ooo…" Gomamon said rubbing his head with his free hand, "That guy's as hard as rock."

"You mean bone", Tentomon said still lifting him aside.

"Whichever. We still have to crack him."

They didn't last long though, because Skullgreymon's flailing tail crashed into them and knocked them both off to one side. Izzy also took off out of the battle zone as the fallen beast began to breath fire in rage.

Tai and Sora were just landing from their tumble down the side of s dune that Tai had sent them when he knocked Sora out of the way. Tai landed back-first on the ground and Sora landed front first on him. Yokomon landed to one side of the two near Tai's head. Tai: Oof! Uncomfortable but then I shouldn't complain at this point.

Sora pushed herself up with her hand planted on Tai's chest and quickly sat-up turning towards the fight off on the top of the dune and Tai sat up rubbing his back with his other hand. He made a point to remember that.

"Tai, the Digimon can't handle that thing alone", she exclaimed as Yokomon came over to her.

"I know that", Tai said standing up slowly. "They've got'ta Digivolve."

"But they can't Digivolve", Joe started running over to them from the direction he was coming, followed by Matt and TK. Mimi and then Izzy were following behind them. "They need energy to do that!"

Matt came up to them finally. "And we haven't eaten anything decent in the last three days."

TK: "This is bad."

Tai: "Well, what else are we going to do? Run?"

"Retreat! Scatter! Just as long as we get away from that horrible thing!" Mimi said, not yet learning to lower her excited voice.

"We stand no chance against him unless we can Digivolve", Yokomon said.

"And, momentarily, that isn't our simplest option in this predicament", Izzy said.

Tai considered for a moment. He was the leader: what would be the best decision for everyone's benefit. Part of him wanted to stay and fight it out all they could but…

"Help me! Ah!" came a voice from high in the air that was falling arced in TK's direction. Everybody turned to its sound and TK backed-up a bit to catch the falling thing as it fell towards him. The orange Patamon landed exhausted in his arms. "I gave him my 'boom bubble' but…it wasn't enough."

"Poor Patamon…" TK said.

"Alright, everyone", Tai yelled as the Skullgreymon was just standing and turning their way, their Digimon also just approaching them from the fight. "It's time to retreat! Izzy, which way is that place that we found again?" Izzy pointed off towards his left, where he had first pointed. "Okay, then let's fall back!"

The group then made their way in a mad dash for that unseen establishment in the desert. The Skullgreymon had stepped completely out of the tar pits and was not willing to lose his prey at all; he gave chase after the kids and Digimon, who all took up the rear except for Yokomon who was carried. The group just ran faster and faster as they saw the monster running-up behind them.

The Skullgreymon bounded through the sand, scattering a pile of it with each stomp. Its long legs carried it over the slopes. The children, meanwhile, ran over the sand as fast as their feet could carry them. Their Digimon also sped as fast as they could. The hot sand added to their haste.

Joe was the first to look over his shoulder again. "Gah! He's still chasing us!"

"Doesn't he have somewhere else to go, like home?!" Mimi said.

"Home?" Izzy said as if he almost had a thought.

"Keep moving, guys!" Tai called behind him.

Just to make matters worse than they already were, two smaller Skullgreymon sprung out from the tar pits behind them all and roared deeply in a breath of fire. One of the two bounded off, out of the tar and after the lead Skullgreymon and the kids he was chasing. Matt looked back and was the first to see the other two.

"Hey, guys, we've got more company! Two more Skullgreymon just poked out of that black goo!" Matt yelled and the Digi-destined alternated looking back and where they were running.

"They brought guests! Typical of people who over-stay their welcome!" Palmon exclaimed.

"We welcomed them?!" Tentomon called.

The lead Skullgreymon stopped where he stood abruptly and leaned downwards towards the ground, revealing a formation on the center of his back. "FISH MISSILE!" it roared in a deep gurgled tone as the bony formation of what may've once been a large fish flew off of his back in a flare and zoomed its way towards the still running group of children.

Gabumon turned about and saw the fish-bone projectile cutting through the air towards them at high speed. "Everybody, hit the dirt!"

"Get down!"

The entire group stopped on a dime when he yelled this and turned themselves to find the missile quickly speeding towards them! Mimi let out a third scream and she was joined this time by Joe and Sora combined. They all quickly fell face-first to the sand before them and the bone missile flew over-head. They could feel the heat from the missile's force as it flew over them almost scorching their backs through their shirts - the Digimon could feel the full heat of the missile as it passed over them. The missile continued over them and collided with a sand dune that rose just before them. The blast was very resounding and scattered sand for dozens of yards around!

Agumon was the first to spring up and quickly attacked the nearest Skullgreymon from a distance. "PEPPER BREATH!" That Skullgreymon ducked under the fireball as it flew past him and towards the one still standing in the tar pit. When it finally reached that Skullgreymon he tried to knock it away with his claw. 

Unfortunately, it ricocheted of his palm and flew downwards into the tar pit in which he stood. On impact from the fireball, the entire surface of the tar caught fire and it quickly spread over the entire pit. The Skullgreymon standing in it, looked about dumb-founded for a moment, roared and then began flailing his arms, trying to put the fire out. The Skullgreymon running towards the first turned at the bellow of its comrade and ran back to help him. His roar also got the attention of the first Skullgreymon, who turned about too and stared at the flames.

Tai was the first of the Digi-destined to stand-up and he helped Sora up in turn. "Let's sneak out of here while we can", he whispered to the others, who were also starting to get back up.

"Yes, before Skullgreymon sees us", Patamon said standing up and then took flight back to the top of TK's hat when he was standing too.

"Alright, now you're gon'na get it!" Agumon said, still intent on fighting the first skeletal Digimon as he took another big breath to attack. Tai quickly ran up behind him and cupped his hand over his mouth, closing it on the attack. "Not now, Agumon, we're getting out of here while we can", Tai hissed in a low level voice, slowly pulling Agumon backwards. "I've burnt the roof of my mouth!" he claimed.

Slowly the group began to sneak away behind the backs of the three Skullgreymon who were intent on putting out the fire in their tar pit for some reason. The closest one to them had also decided to take some steps forward towards the pit in case the other two couldn't get the fire down. A few minutes later - and five more steps forward - the other two Skullgreymon had the fire down and out. Then the farthest monster turned about to face the prey he was chasing only to disappointedly find them having disappeared.

The twice dumb-founded creature rotated his head left and right to try to find them but he didn't see them anywhere within range. Enraged at this, he bellowed one breath of fire, roared and then turned to slowly walk back towards the pit and his other two Skullgreymon. But, as he turned, he didn't catch sight of Matt's head sticking up over the edge of a steep sand dune followed by Gabumon's head.

"Did they see us?"

Matt quickly threw his hand over Gabumon's snout, shutting his mouth closed. "Shh. Keep your voice down." Then they both turned about and slide down the ledge of the dune to where the rest of the Digi-destined were waiting for them. "It's okay; they're going back."

"That doesn't make sense", Tai said. "Are you sure?"

"Why don't you go up and ask them yourself, if you're so unsure?"

"Skullgreymon are usually driven to destroy anything madly by their over-abundance of power! I wonder what made them turn back?" Tentomon said.

"Perhaps they thought we we're intruding in their territory or something", Sora said standing besides Mimi, who was pouring more sand out of her cowboy hat.

"That's what I think", Izzy said. "Remember how they all seemed to rise out of the tar pit itself?"

"Yeah, like they lived in it or under it or something like that", Yokomon said.

"Lived in that stuff!?" Mimi said. "That's gross! Why would anyone want to live in that gunk?"

Joe: "Even better: how?"

"Maybe there was an underground tunnel or something like that under it that they lived in; the tar would provide a good protection against being bothered", Gabumon said. "Skullgreymon can be very territorial."

"So they were just protecting their home, thinking that we were going to bother them?" Tai said. "Well, that would explain why they were so concerned with dousing that flame."

"Well", TK started, "I say we leave them alone from now on." Patamon looked down from TK's hat. "I'm with you on that one."

"Yeah, let's get moving before it starts to rain", Gomamon said, looking up at a sky which was already beginning to turn overcast.

"Okay then", Tai said, before turning towards Izzy. "Are we still going the right way?"

Izzy looked about a moment and then grabbed Mimi's arm lifting the compass/watch on her arm up to eye-level. "Yeah, we should just keep going this way and we'll be fine." Mimi indignantly pulled her arm back down.

"Okay, then let's move out."

******* 

Almost an hour later, the original Skullgreymon was still standing guard outside of the tar pit which he came. The sky had become badly overcast but it fortunately hadn't rained yet. The creature was watching over the sky, but was bothering less about the clouds. It was just watching and waiting for something. Behind him, the tar spilt earlier had been cleaned up the best it could and placed back into the pit.

The red eyes of the Skullgreymon swept back and forth across the sky, watching everything that looked to move. By now, the sun had almost been completely blocked by the clouds so he had to watch carefully not to miss anything. The sand underneath its feet had been shuffled greatly, indicating the skirmish had occurred earlier.

Suddenly, the Skullgreymon say out of the corner of its eye what it had been hoping to see high in the sky. A lone black and yellow figure flying below the clouds headed towards Myotismon's castle off in the horizon. It looked almost like a dot against the clouds being so high. The monster on the ground roared but the creature continued on its path, evidently not hearing the call. Angered, it roared a second time and still the creature in the air didn't hear it.

Quite peeved, the Skullgreymon leaned down again revealing the weapon on its back. "FISH MISSILE!" it roared and then fired the missile upwards towards the creature flying above him. When the missile finally exploded, the flying monster was just to one side of the blast and that caught its attention. Wavering in its path and almost losing it, the creature looked down on the ground to find the source of the attack - Skullgreymon. It quickly changed course and then flew downwards towards the skeletal behemoth as fast as it could, anxious about the incoming acid rain it had heard about.

"What? What is it?" Flymon quickly asked as it reach head-hieght of the Skullgreymon. Quite contrary to his name, he looked more a like a large bumblebee with hair. "There's an acid rain forecast going about and I don't want to be caught out in…"

"Shut up!" the Skullgreymon grumbled. "I have news to report."

"Thiz had better be good."

"Flymon, you'd be useless to me if not for your far-reaching travel; I would've gotten rid of you already so don't try my patience!"

"What patience?"

The Skullgreymon gave a dirty look at Flymon and then went back to his normal conversation charisma - which wasn't much better than the previous. "The seven Digi-destined children were just here."

"What!? They were here!!" Flymon said excitedly, wavering in mid-air.

"They moved-on about an hour ago. They've learned about the acid rain and are already enroute to the 'project' for cover."

"Huh? Well, why didn't you stop them, you left-overs dinosaur?"

This angered the Skullgreymon worse than he normally was and the beast breath a blast of fire at the Flymon, forcing it to the ground next to the pit. "Don't tempt me, you rotten 'fruit-Flymon'! If I had more of a jurisdiction in this desert I would've chased them down." The Flymon was just beginning to get back-up. "But as it is, Lord Myotismon doesn't like me to run too far from this set-up!"

The Flymon, now slightly crisped, took flight again and leveled off at Skullgreymon's head height again - this time, a bit further away than before. "Okay, okay. I get the picture! Geez, say it; don't bray it!"

This angered the Skullgreymon again, but he continued nonetheless. "As that caused a disturbance, today's shipment was delayed almost indefinitely! We're still recovering here." He moved aside as a pipe slowly rose out of the tar pit as he spoke, extended to one side and stopped with its open end over the top of the communicator. A circle opened on the top of the communicator, in the silvered transmission dish, and the pipe lowered onto it, fitting snuggly and securely onto the hole. Tar from the pit pumped itself through the pipe and through the communicator.

"Zat's your problem!" Flymon said. "What do you want of me?"

"I want you to do the only thing you do - fly - and rendezvous with the 'project'. Warn D.D. to prepare himself: he's about to have company", the Skullgreymon said, pointing Flymon off in the direction the Digi-Destined had taken and towards the so-called 'project'.

"Very well, that is the closest structure out here to take shelter in anyway from the acid." Flymon said. "Should you want me to tackle the Digi-destined and stop them from getting to the plant?"

"No." Skullgreymon said turning back to him. "You're not capable of stopping them. They're too powerful for the pathetic likes of you, even in the weakened state this desert has put them in! Just go and warn D.D. the fastest you can."

"I can't handle the Digi-destined!?", Flymon exclaimed enraged. "I'll sting them to death! Be they at full power or…" Skullgreymon, who was right now getting as mad as ever, leaned down and aimed another of his 'fish missiles' at Flymon, who stopped speaking as soon as he saw it. "Fine! I'll just tell D.D.! Nothing else!" Without another word, Flymon turned around and took off into the air, flying the direction Skullgreymon had just pointed.

Skullgreymon was tempted to fire his missile at the insect Digimon which annoyed him more than anything anyway, but decided against it. 'D.D.' needs to know about the Digi-destined when they arrive. He has to be ready for them, the creature thought as it reluctantly leaned back-up. With a sigh it jumped feet-first into the tar pit again. It felt it had done its civic duty to 'Lord Myotismon' for the day.

******* 

Some mile or so away at the base of a sand dune that had just been climbed down, the Digi-destined were walking along on their way towards the structure the satellites showed earlier. Izzy was still walking with his laptop in his arm in case it may be needed but didn't have it open due to popular vote. The group was walking again in a line whose order was similar to other ones they walked in - Tai, Sora, Matt and TK, Mimi and then Izzy - each person aside their Digimon companions.

"How much longer are we going to have to walk?" Mimi asked, eyeing Palmon who was beginning to slouch badly with her walk.

"I don't know. We'll find out when we get there", Tai answered from the front of the line as he began scaling the side of another dune they would all have to pass.

"Who knows how much longer the rain will hold out", Sora asked putting Yokomon down on the ground to allow herself to climb the face of the dune. "The sky is just getting cloudier and cloudier."

"Don't worry, everyone", Izzy said, slinging his computer into the slide pack he had on his back.

" 'Don't worry?' No one's worrying", Gomamon said looking up at Joe.

"Oh no", Matt said with his dead-pan sarcasm. "We'd all just like to know when it would've been better to melt: in the blazing sun before or the acid rain later?"

"I set an alarm off of what information the satellite sent back to my computer: only when it goes off do we have to worry", Izzy said stopping as the queue did. Tai was trying to find the sturdier part of the sand dune to climb as he had numerous times before. 

"The let's hope it doesn't go off at all", Patamon said.

"With our run-of-luck this week, that'd be a miracle", Joe said.

Tai immediately stopped trying to scale the side and turned about, sliding down the dune from what height he had gotten to. He looked at everyone with a pessimistic face and a sort of scolding look to him as if he were not actually looking at them but something behind them. "What's with you guys? I'm trying to look to the positive side of things and you're all bumming me out."

Sora: "It would be easier if we didn't have to worry about the rain coming."

"Yeah, and for me that fear goes two ways", Mimi said. Everyone looked at her. "Well, these clothes aren't drip-dry."

"Mimi, if we don't find shelter from the rain, they'll drip", Matt said and Mimi looked at him. "Oh yeah, they'll drip right off you along with your skin." Mimi cringed at the thought.

"Well, try to keep in high spirits, people. If we don't we'll never make it to where we want to go", Tai said. He turned to resume his finding of the best part of the dune to climb but then quickly turned back towards Sora. "Sora, try to help lift everyone's spirits up when you can."

"Tai, I can only go so far as to…"

"We all can only do our best", TK said. "We've been walking in the sun for weeks and I hoped that the sound of rain would be a nice, cool change of pace. But now that we've got this harming stuff…we've got to get to that safe place out there."

Tai looked down at TK and then back at Izzy, whom he almost expected now to have his laptop open working on their situation. But, instead Izzy was not on the machine; he was paying close attention to the conversation. With one of his only signs of intellectual encouragement from the group gone, he turned towards Sora again. "Let's just try to keep on our best spirits everyone."

"Yeah, and in the process not turn into ones when it rains", Agumon said.

"Well, why not try telling a story as we go? Or what about singing a song; that always cheers me up when I'm not feeling my best", Sora suggested, fishing for a good suggestion. "Matt, you can lead the tune with your harmonica."

"Uh…yeah…sure, I can do that."

"But what song should we sing?" Gabumon asked.

Gomamon looked up: "We Digimon don't know that many songs. So you guys pick one."

"How's about I Can See Clearly Now the Rain is Gone?" Mimi asked from the back of the group, now looking directly at Palmon. The plant looked in back shape: her colorful leaves on her head looked to be wilting slightly, and she was slouching even worse than before - standing still and holding tightly onto the side of Mimi's skirt for support.

Mimi looked up for a moment and found, once again, everyone looking at her. 

"Okay, so maybe that is such a bad selection given our situation", she said apologetically. "But then, one can hope can't they?"

Tai waved that off and turned back towards the side of the dune, Matt coming up besides him. Tai started climbing again, having found the sturdiest part of the side. When he was near the top: "Okay, everyone, let's forget about the song for the moment and concentrate on where we're going." He reached down for Sora's hand and helped pull her up the side. Matt was just starting up along with TK riding piggy-back.

Down at the bottom, Mimi knelt down to her friend Palmon who looked to be almost too tired to walk. "Are you okay, Palmon? You don't look one-hundred percent. Do you want any help?" The turning-green (hard to do for an already green plant, mind you) Palmon turned in the general direction of her voice and said, waving her hand, "Oh don't worry about me Mimi, I'll be fine. I just wish it weren't so hot and humid still!" Mimi looked at her friend, "Oh you poor dear…here, take my hat, if that helps anyway." Mimi took off her cowboy hat and balanced it on Palmon's head. "Now let's get going. Everyone's leaving without us."

At the top of the dune, Tai reported that he still couldn't see the structure that Izzy had seen on the radar; but, Izzy still held his opinion that there was something large and tall out there so they started off again, hoping that was the case.

Minutes passed, another hour of anxiety passed and then finally Palmon passed. Mimi stopped concerned over the out-cold Digimon as if it were her own child. She tried to rouse it again with the last of the drinking water Joe had in his pouch but when that didn't do any good she resorted to carrying the poor thing the rest of the way, leaving her hat on Palmon's head to shade her from the faint sun that crept through the dark growing clouds.

"Only ever saw her more concern about her wardrobe", Matt whisper/commented to Tai as they walked.

So they continued onwards over the sand that still blazed below their feet despite the over-all lack of heat from the sun and Izzy was explaining 'acid rain' to TK, Patamon and Gabumon using some real-life instances from Earth the best he could without mortifying them.

Tentomon suddenly stopped in the middle of a stride and called, "Stop everyone!"

To his instructions, everyone stopped what they were doing and then turned to him.

"I think I hear something."

"Something…?" Yokomon asked skeptically.

"Something…familiar", Tentomon said looking up-wards to try and improve his highly-sensitive hearing. Everyone was looking at each other with a quizzical look on their faces. Patamon only lift his wing-like ears high into the air.

A few hundred feet upwards and some few feet away from the Digi-destined on the sandy ground, Flymon zoomed across the sky underneath the cloud-cover. He was doing his best to make time before the rain came - he could almost sense when it would begin. Close. He didn't want to risk flying above the clouds for fear of over-shooting his target. Air currents greatly slowed him down but he wasn't that far now and thought he would make it.

But then he looked down over the ground to see if he could catch sight of his target and instead saw the Digi-destined group standing around at the base of a small sand dune. They seemed to be just standing about waiting for something to happen. For it to rain? No, they weren't that idiotic, especially that one with the little button machine that told them everything about everything.

Looking at the children, his thoughts then trailed back to the conversation he had just had with his superior - Skullgreymon: _"You're not capable of stopping them. They're too powerful for the pathetic likes of you, even in the weakened state this desert has put them in!_" At this he became full of envy and anger at the weak way everyone in Myotismon's organization held him - even his military inferiors. 

I can't even handle a bunch of kids, they say!?, he thought to himself. These kids don't look too able. I shalln't scare them like I did before, and was doing a pretty good job before that Birdramon came along may I add: I shall finish them off by myself and prove to those that mock me that I can handle perfectly well!

With that resolution, and forgetting about his orders and the acid rain that was still oncoming, he swooped downwards at the group just as that insect one who went with the button machine kid was turning about. He was still looking upwards and was unsuspecting.

Down on the ground, Tentomon was still turning slowly following the sound which only he seemed to hear. Everyone else was trying to remain as silent as they could to help his concentration. Tai was getting impatient in the meantime that this was wasting their time.

"Anything yet, or should we get moving again?" Tai asked, arms as crossed as he was, in his best voice. Sora elbowed him slightly: "Shh. He's listening."

"I can still hear it", Tentomon up-dated the others, almost completely turned around.

"I can hear it too, Tentomon!" Patamon said sitting-up on TK's hat with his two bat-like wings pricked. "I hear it too!"

"Cool, what's 'it' sound like, Patamon?" TK asked.

"It's getting closer….", Tentomon said, almost completely turned about now. 'And…it…sounds…like…" He was now completely turned about and looking directly at a black and yellow figure hurling towards them with blurry flapping wings buzzing on each side of him. "Flymon!" he exclaimed throwing up his claws in surprise. Everyone looked where he was and saw Flymon swooping downwards towards them at high speed and they all jumped at his presence.

"GROUND STINGERS!" Flymon screeched as he ripped through the air and fired numerous of his spike attacks at the group below. Everyone jumped downwards and hit the dirt…er, sand as the attacks crashed into the ground all about them. Palmon and Yokomon accidentally flew from Sora's and Mimi's hands as they jumped to the ground. Tentomon was the only one still as startled to remain standing. Luckily, he wasn't hit; they all passed by him.

Tentomon suddenly hit the dirt as Flymon swooped down and just missed ramming into the other insect Digimon. He was ranting something like: "Bwa ha ha! You humans will meet point-first with my stingers!" He tripped slightly on the spike on the shell of the Digimon though and wavered slightly but quickly recovered. Its speed blew-up a very good breeze that knocked Mimi's hat off and scattered some sand about even more, blowing some of it in Joe's face. The strong breeze also forced everyone further to the ground. After it swooped down like that it began to climb again and circle about to get another shot at the humans and Digimon group.

Tai was just pushing himself back up off the ground face-first and spat some sand out of his mouth. "P'tui! Hey, watch where you're going, you Sunday flyer!" He then looked over to his right, where Sora had hit the dirt as he did. Sora was there, yes, but her predicament wasn't the best one: one of Flymon's stingers had embedded itself into Sora's lower right arm - some red blood creeping from the wound. Sora was biting her own lip, trying not to scream from the pain, but Tai could easily see by the tears forming over her fear-squinted eyes that she was in pain. Her arm lay there as if the offending stinger pinned it…no, it didn't!, Tai's mind exclaimed in blind hope. "Sora!"

Tai jumped to a crawl over to Sora and quickly examined the wound: the stinger was embedded near her muscle and nowhere that looked to be near any vital veins. "Sora! Are you okay? Does it hurt bad?" Sora looked up holding the same expression that sent chills down Tai's spine. 

"Just get it out, okay?" she said though her gritted teeth. Tai quickly reached down to Sora's arm, where the spike was, and gradually loosened it until it was fully out. He then threw the weapon off to one side. Sora lifted her arm off the ground once sitting upright and gripped the wound with her other hand in a vain attempt at stopping the bleeding.

Mimi quickly scrambled over to where Palmon had fallen and picked her back up in her arms; Patamon jumped back onto TK's hat and then into the air. Joe was looking for his glasses and Izzy was recovering along with Matt.

"TK!? Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"Where'd my computer fall to?"

"Anyone see my glasses, cause I can't…oh, here they are."

Tai then stood-up as everyone else was too and said to the Digimon who were already standing: "Swat that fly out of the air!"

Gabumon turned first and aimed: "BLUE BLASTER!" The neon blue fire shot out his mouth in a stream and headed towards where Flymon was making his turn. It would've hit if Flymon hadn't of seen it and dodged to one side before completing his turn around. "Bah ha! That was an attack?"

Tentomon quickly took to the air and flapped his wings up to the speed where the static grew enough for him to perform his attack: "SUPER SHOCKER!" Agumon then jumped below him and joined in with his fire attack: "PEPPER BREATH!" Flymon just dodged to one side and then the other as the attacks flew past him. He was awful close to the ground again so he decided to swoop over again. "Gah! GROUND STINGERS!"

Everyone covered up, be they still on the ground, in the air or standing, as Flymon swooped over them again and fired his stingers at them at random. No one was hit this time but the force of the breeze he stirred-up knocked Joe and Matt to the ground again. Flymon took upwards to the air again and decided to turn for another swoop. These little pests didn't stand a chance as they were, he figured.

Tai: "Alright, he's coming about for another pass! Get ready everyone."

"To what?", Matt commented.

"Running would be good", Joe said.

"No, not 'running'. We're fighting!"

"I was afraid he'd say that."

Flymon was about to the half-way of his turn around when he heard the seal Digimon that was with the human with the glass over his eyes yell: "MARCHING FISHES!" 

He didn't realize it at the moment but a school of five technicolor fish had appeared behind him in the air, from above the clouds, and moved to pester about him quickly. "Hey! What do you think you're doing! Get away!" Flymon panted, trying to swat the fish away in vain. "You're not flying fish! Hey, stop biting on my wings!"

Joe meanwhile just looked on as the fish made Flymon waver as he began to descend towards them. "Fish flying out of a river - I'd believe that. Out of a fountain - a bit strange but I'd believe it. But just out of nowhere in the middle of a desert - now that's just getting too ridiculous for me!"

"Now get out of here! Go! Shoo!" Flymon finished as the fish called off their attack and flew away above the clouds again. Flymon then looked right where he was going again and found himself to be hurtling right for Tai and he couldn't pull away in time. Instead, he decided to sting him when the collide! "GROUND STING!" But Sora jumped aside just as Flymon was about to crash into him and knocked them both out of the way and Yokomon jumped in the path of the fly. 

"BUBBLE BLOW!" Numerous pink bubbles blew out of the small in-training Digimon's mouth and towards Flymon's face. He was already going to fast to avoid them and had to plow right though. The bubbles popping on his face disoriented the flying Digimon enough so that he could keep steady and swooped across the ground again and into the air erratically, wiping his face off like something we on it uncontrollably. Yokomon landed just to see Flymon zoom past Izzy on his right side and then escalate into the air quickly.

"Yow! Hey, watch where you're flying!" Izzy said, dropping his computer again and getting knock leftwards by force of Flymon's near-miss.

Patamon: "BOOM BUBBLE! Pow!"

The energy attack that looked like rippled, disturbed air flew from the cute little Digimon's mouth and hit Flymon right in the back with a powerful jolt. "Gwah! Ow! Hey, I just had those thin hairs combed back there!" 

Patamon just said rudely to the attacking Digimon, "Serves you right then for attacking us!"

Agumon stood up and looked at the creature as it turned as best it could. "PEPPER BREATH!"

The fire bomb struck the creature dead in its back and knocked it into a tail-spin towards the sandy ground! 

"GROUND STIN…Gah! I've been hit! Mayday! Mayday!"

Agumon once again fired a fire bomb attack at the creature as it fell ("PEPPER BREATH!") and that one also hit it directly in its back. This time Flymon started to smoke as he fell, leaving a trail of black cloud as he fell, and his wings were slowly falling apart. "AH! I'm going for the big beehive in the sky!" Just seconds later, the form of Flymon crashed into a smoking heap on the other-side of a dune in the direction which the Digi-destined had been originally heading.

Tai, Matt, Izzy, Sora and their Digimon immediately started running-off towards where the creature had crash-landed. Mimi picked the limp, but unharmed form of Palmon back up from the sand again and did likewise with her hat - after pouring out even more sand. Joe was just getting-up and hurriedly collecting some things that had fallen out of his bag. 

"Hey, guys, wait-up for me…er, us!"

"Palmon, do you feel okay? Can you hear me?" Mimi asked nursing the green Digimon in her hands. Palmon only groaned but it sounded like a healthy groan to Mimi who was satisfied by the reply.

Over at the crash site, Flymon lay face down in a small crater of pushed away sand. His wings were almost falling apart on their stalks and his back was scorched a black. The fall had been rough on him.

Tai and Agumon were the first to look over the top of the dune and find Flymon crashed there; next came Matt, Sora -holding her arm, Izzy and their Digimon. Flymon leaned-up in the sand and saw the eight standing there looking at him. "Curse you…" was all he could get out before he deleted.

"Good riddance", Tai said as he looked over his shoulder at the others just starting to catch-up to them.

"Yeah, he was a nuisance ever since we crossed-paths as Birdramon", Yokomon said.

"Well, I wouldn't need to complain about him now", Matt said.

"Unless you're him", Tentomon said bluntly.

"I bet he was coming along to slow us down from getting to Myotismon's castle", Izzy said as Joe and Mimi holding Palmon followed up the dune.

Joe looked over at Sora's arm. "Sora, you've been wounded." Sora looked down at her own bleeding cut: she hadn't even paid any attention to it after she got it, she barely felt it anymore. Joe reached down into his bag and rummaged around for sometime to use a bandage.

"Oh don't worry, Joe, I'm a big girl. I'll just grin it off…"

"Nonsense, Sora", Tai said. "You don't want it to get infected." Joe produced the best he could to help bandage the cut up: toilet paper, as given by Gomamon's head popping out of the bag. "But let's do this while we're on the move; we've already…"

BEEP BEEP!

BEEP BEEP!

Everyone looked at Izzy and Izzy thus looked down at the laptop in his hands. He lifted it to eye-height and opened it up, looking in horror at the screen. "Guys, it's time!"

Just as he said that, a drop of rain fell onto one of the keys of his laptop. But, when it hit the key, it didn't splatter normally: it hissed against the plastic key. Izzy jumped back almost dropping his computer in surprise at the timing. "And it's happening right now!" Everyone looked around as lonely drops slowly fell out of the sky in a very small but wide-spread drizzle. Mimi let out a small scream as one of them crashed through the tip of her hat. And everyone looked about as they started falling a bit faster and faster...

"Ouch! This stuff burns!" Sora said grabbing her shoulder and forgetting about her cut.

Agumon jumped as a drop landed on his toe. "Ow! My foot, my foot!"

Joe just kept on his guard and slowly inched his head beck into the bag. "Uh guys, its gon'na get hotter soon!"

Matt just leaned over TK to block the rain from him and Gabumon lifted his arms over his head likewise. "Matt, I'm scare!"

"Just stand still."

Tai jumped to one side hoping to avoid a big cluster of the rain drops but they hit into his arm anyway. "Yeouch! No…don't stand still! We…Ouch!…have to keep running!"

Izzy looked up from cringing from the rain as it slowly burned his skin. Luckily the rain was weaker than expected but he knew it would get worse before better. His computer screen was flashing a bit from all the rain damage it had already taken but Izzy caught the map's compass rose in-between flashes of static. He thrust out his hand. "That way! And don't stop running! Ow!"

"Everyone! Get out of the rain!"

The group began another mad-dash that they all hoped they wouldn't have to take. The rain droplets were still wide-spread enough not to be overwhelming but they were enough to pain each of the Digi-destined as they ran. Sora kept Yokomon under her chest to avoid any harm coming to the poor little Digimon. Izzy ran with his computer still open, flailing attached to his right hand swinging; Tentomon ran as fast as he could and would've flied if the rain wouldn't of damaged his wings. Mimi had Palmon covered under the brim of her enormous hat. Agumon and Gabumon could only do the best they could to avoid the rain.

"Ooo…Eee…Ahh! This is getting very uncomfortable!"

"You think this is uncomfortable? You should run with fur AND the rain to boot!"

Matt was leaning over TK as they both ran to try shield him from the rain - unfortunately the rain was falling the way they were running; Patamon curled up in his own wings in TK's arms. Matt's back of his shirt was getting warped by the constant acid rain that was slowly falling on it and was weakening faster and faster. Joe was running as if there was no tomorrow and Gomamon curled up against the inside of the bag with his eyes shut.

"Gah!"

Another scream from Mimi as she tripped and fell forwards into the sand. Palmon fell out her arms and fell in front of her, but still under the brim of her hat. "Ooo...that hurt! Palmon? You…Yah!" A drop of acid rain fell on the back of her neck and burnt like a needle. That startled Joe who was right behind and he jumped over her but tumbled down into a fall when he landed.

"Ah! Hey watch where you're throwing me about, Joe!" Gomamon called from inside the bag.

"Oh, like I wanted to fall down", Joe retorted picking it back-up and turning around to make sure Mimi was okay. Lying down on the ground, she was getting burnt more-so than anyone else. She was almost paralyzed in pain. But Izzy behind her saw this and immediately knelt down when he reached her side. Joe then continued.

"Get up! This is no time to be lying down!" Izzy said as he pulled Mimi up by the arm.

"Palmon!"

"I've got her", Tentomon said picking the limp green form back up in his claws and Mimi placed the hat on her friend again, shielding her. When Mimi got fully-up she quickly started running. Izzy just quickly followed behind the best he could and, when it looked like Mimi needed it, he actually used his exposed computer as a sort of umbrella for her. But she didn't notice at all, she had her arm covering her eyes from the drops.

"This is not good! This is definitely not good!" Joe said as he ran.

"Oh, and what gave you the notion that it was to begin with! Yeouch!"

"Tai, we're gon'na collapsed from pain soon if we don't get anywhere!" Sora called to Tai.

"I know…ow!…but we don't know how far we have to go!" Tai said. "And we can't stay around here!"

"Use your binoculars!" Agumon said alongside him.

"We should be close!" Izzy added in, taking a quick glance at his computer's screen during intervals of using it as Mimi's protective umbrella as she mumbled: "Oh, my dress is going to be completely ruined in the morning!"

Tai reached into his pocket and pulled out his small telescope. He quickly scanned over his immediate surroundings but still saw nothing. Just sand and more sand! The overcast day didn't help light-up anything that he may easily miss either. Scanning over the horizon and as beyond as he could, Tai could feel the rain burning his head as it was looking forward, his hand holding the telescope and he even thought he heard the telescope being burnt by the rain. 

"Yah!" he yelled as a good-sized drop crashed into his hand and he pulled it and the telescope down. "I still don't see anything!"

"We should be right on top of it!" Izzy called.

"Keep looking, Tai!"

Tai turned around again and looked about for this mysterious shelter again and, this time, saw something that he had almost over-looked the first. There was a glint of a metal structure strutting out from one of the dunes that appeared to be very deep. The dune must've been steep to conceal it because as they got closer, more and more of it was revealed slowly to them.

"You see anything?" Sora called.

"Yeah, I do but I don't know what it is! It's beyond that dune top over there!"

"What's it look like?"

"It's made of metal for one thing…"

"Then head for it!" Izzy called. "That's the best lead yet and it's right where this 'structure's supposed to be anyway!"

"But what if it's not any help for…Yeouch!…us?" Joe asked

Mimi: "Oh, I hate this! I do! Let's just go!

The group turned slightly to head towards the metal object Tai had seen with his pocket telescope. Mostly the group ran blindly as the rain got a bit more volatile and harder. The back of Tai's shirt was almost about to peel through as was Matt's woolen shirt. Mimi's hat over Tentomon and Palmon seemed to be taking less damage than Izzy's computer but it was still functioning…somewhat.

The dune wasn't to far off for a group running like they were, it was level with the ground they were on but obviously steep on the other-side, and before they knew it, Tai and Agumon were standing at the crest of it. He stopped and forced his eyes open to see what they had found before they got any further…

"A factory!? Out in the middle of a desert!?"

The factory almost completely occupied the base of the dune indent, taking up more than a good two hundred feet square. Metal silos stood out here and there among the square and other peculiarly-shaped building tops. Some smoke stacks stand dormant,scattered about the confines. There were some external catwalks above openings in level of the building but most of them were covered with metal awnings and the majority of the complex looked to be in-doors.

Almost all of the Digi-destined stopped at the top of the dune looking down into the factory at awe for a moment, forgetting about the acid rain.

"A factory? How weird", Matt commented

"But fortunate", Patamon said under TK's arms.

"So that's where all the acid compunds are coming from", Izzy said looking over the building. 

"Yeah, terrific" commented Joe.

But they were all snapped back to there senses by a bolt of lightning followed immediate crash of thunder, indicating the storm was right on top of them! They started running down the side of the dune towards what looked to the entrance door underneath a conspicuous metal awning that didn't look to be too sturdily built. It weakly held out the acid rain for the moment though. The group made their way with speed down the side and then right under the awning, everyone fitting under there with a some room to spare. There they quickly wiped themselves off to make sure the slowly deadly rain was off of them and checked for wounds: lots of very minor burns but nothing terrible.

"Isn't it lucky we found this place?" TK said, wringing his hat out in front of him.

"Lucky? We'd be lucky if this place were clean", Mimi commented, shaking her hat. Palmon was now back in her arms, still unconscious.

"Uh, guys…sorry to burst your bubbles, but we're not out of the rain yet", Matt said looking upwards at the awning they were standing under. Looking up, they could see stain-like spots forming on it and hear the sound of it sizzling as the rain pounded on it.

"Wha? No way!" Tai exclaimed. 

"The acid's eating its way right through the metal!" Tentomon said.

"Not again…", Gomamon - head out of the bag - trailed-off.

"The consistency of the rain being acidic must be increasing quickly", Izzy commented, looking upwards with the same awed expression on.

"And I was always worried about some pulling a rug out from under me…", Joe said.

"Would you settle for the opposite?" Gomamon said up to him.

"We've got'ta get inside!" Sora called pointing (with her good arm) over at large metal door embedded in the side of the building underneath the very end of the awning at the wall. The door was scratched-silver like much of the rest of the building and two tracks along the outside of the door demonstrated that the door must slide open into the wall.

The men from the group and their Digimon walked over to the side of the door opposite of the tracks and started to grudge, pulling it towards the other wall to open it. They struggled, forced but in the end just ended-up tiring themselves out. Matt paused for a minute to catch his breath and check on the condition of the awning: small holes were starting to be burnt through and the metal supports that stretched to the ground were slowly being eaten away. He then looked down at TK doing his best like the others.

"Com'mon, stupid door!" Matt groaned through his teeth resuming his pushing, "Open!"

Sora was standing back nursing what was turning into being a very powerfully stinging wound besides Mimi who was nursing Palmon. They both were cheering the guys on as they tried their best. However, they both saw that the door wasn't budging.

"Sora, this is terrible. What do we do if the door won't open?"

Sora: "We fry. Huh?" Sora put that thought on pause and looked over at a wall at a panel they had overlooked. It wasn't a button but more like some sort of circuitry panel like the kind in computers without all the attachments that would stick onto it. Two sideways 'U' shaped figures with two forked, jagged lines passing between them was featured on the form.

Now, this wasn't Sora's best area of expertise but she had a good notion of what that may've been. Mimi didn't know why she had cut her previous line short and ask, "What is it?"

"Izzy", Sort'a said, "That panel on the side of the door!"

Izzy backed-away from the door and looked at the panel Sora was indicating. "Hey, I didn't see that before." A quick scan-over of the scratched metal panel revealed a telephone port of some sort in the side. He quickly reached behind his back to his computer and pulled what remained of it out. He had forgotten that the acid had done a number on its plastic earlier: a small hole was exposed on the flap cover, some of the keys were eroded and the screen (it was still on) was flashing static.

"Well, Iz?" Tai called over, still budging the door with the others. "What is it?"

"A locking panel of some sort", Izzy answered turning about as Tai backed-off from the door momentarily. "I'd be able to access it but I'm not sure what's left of my computer would work."

"Then what good would that do for us?"

Izzy looked back over the panel again and examined the design on it for a moment. "Nothing from that angle. But that design looks like a pair of magnets: that might an indication how the door is being held closed."

"Magnets?" Gabumon said, backing-off from the door.

"Yes; we probably have to break some sort of magnetic lock holding the door. A few of our Digimons' attacks should accomplish that."

"How can you be sure?" Matt said, joining the group talking. "It might be just a waste of time we don't have." The group of Digimon still budging at the door stopped as the majority of the entire group had stopped.

Just as they did that, the furthest section of the metal awning over their heads up to the section just behind Mimi and Sora collapsed onto itself and settled down on the ground in a slowly disintegrating heap. Mimi and Sora had jumped over to the others when they first heard the metal loudly crack.

"Oh, I don't care what we do", Mimi said excitedly, "but whatever, just do it now!"

"Okay, chill. Everyone stand as far back as they can. All the Digimon will fire at the door and hope that they break something", Tai said. Sure, better instructions were given by others at even more drastic of times but they all complied as they were told: the kids all stood back near the end of the awning extent that had collapsed and the Digimon stood out towards the door.

"One question, Tai", Gabumon said. "What do we do if this plan doesn't work?"

"We wing it!" Patamon said.

"Don't worry, this has to work or we're puddles", Tai said. He then turned to Agumon: "You ready, buddy?"

"You bet!" Agumon said. "HYPER BREATH!"

"SUPER SHOCKER!"

The first two attacks struck the door and a fizzle of neon purple electricity and sparkle was seen to snake over the entire door in sheets. The door remained standing though.

"BLUE BLASTER!"

"BOOM BUBBLE!"

After those two attacks the door crackled and fizzled even more loudly. The purple electrical disturbance which covered the outside of the door almost completely dominated the surface. But it then quickly died off.

"No, wait a minute! Save your energy! This is getting us nowhere!" Matt called.

Izzy: "He's right! Don't aim at the door! The panel! Aim at the panel!"

"Right! SUPER SHOCKER!"

"BLUE BLASTER!"

"HYPER BREATH!"

All the attacks struck the panel at once. It fizzled in electrical sparks and the voltage passing through it; likewise, the 'magnetic shielding' that held the door closed sparked itself and flashed on and off. "It's almost broken!" TK called.

"Wait, I still have to go! BOOM BUBBLE pow!" With that attack striking it, the panel burst open and fell off the wall, hanging by a few stray wires. The electrical current over the face of the door flashed brightly and then faded off with smoke and a loud clap (or it may've been the thunder; no one could be sure). "I did it!"

"Good job! Now force that door open!" Tai called as he ran over to the crease between the door and wall again and pried his finger into in. Everyone else did too, some preparing to push the door, others ready to pull it open. The Digimon joined in as before. "Now!" The entire group began to pull at the surface of the door again, trying to move the lumbering mass. At first nothing happened to the door, it remained steady, but it soon began to creak into the wall, opening at their combined strength. At the side of the door where it went into the wall, Gomamon watching from a distance like the girls thought he saw sparks and heard metal cracking, bending and breaking as it opened.

Once the door was forced back into the wall and open, the group ran into what looked to be a dark room from the outside. Izzy and Tai remained besides the door and made sure that everyone made their way in as fast as they could.

"Tai, give me one second", he leaned down to pick up the remains of his laptop.

"Sure thing, Iz, but only make it a _second_." And he ran in too to make sure that they hadn't actually walked right into a trap like on some many occasions they did - they hadn't; the room was empty. Mimi was the last person to run through the door into the factory for shelter but before she completely went in she stopped aside Izzy and turned: "Thanks for getting us out of the rain, Brainiac!" She then continued in.

Izzy meanwhile just looked at her, wondering whether to smile for the compliment or frown for the nick-name he disliked; he was caught in a mid-face. Tentomon pulled at his hand and said, "Com'mon Izzy, before the cover falls in!" Izzy snapped-to just as he heard the metal above his head creak in complaint and he quickly jumped through the door into the room. Just as he did, the full awning crashed down and settled into a similar pile of slowly burning rubble as did the first section. They were all in. But not out of the fire. 

{Legal Mumbo-Jumbo: I do not own Digimon nor any of their characters so don't flame me on this one…Yaddy yaddy yada… This is my first actual Digimon fanfic so bear with me. Don't expect Ch.2 anytime very soon but it will come when I get the chance.}

   [1]: Fate445687@aol.com



	2. Default Chapter Title

****

Infernal Machines

[Fate Hedgehog][1]

[Time: About five days before the Digi-destined found Myotismon's castle and returned to Japan. . .]

Chapter Two: The Assembly Line

Cold. Dark. The room then slowly faded to minor colors as each of the Digi-destineds' eyes adjusted to the abrupt change in contrast. The room the group was in was rather moderately size but its boundaries were not clearly defined as walls gave way to openings to show pipes, gears and other intricate machinery - most of it shut-down and not moving. One wall of the room was actually a long arena like factory array hidden amid the darkness beyond which lay over ten meters below the actual level the group was on, a railing keeping them up there. Swaying of metal chains and clanking machines chimed off long into the distance of the factory. The drip of liquid hitting a puddle somewhere. Suspended metal walkways extended outwards in three directions from the 'platform' the group had landed on when they entered. Hissing steam to one-side and to the other at unset intervals made everyone slightly uneasy.

The Digi-destined had all entered the room and were already bracing themselves as if the worse would come from out of the shadows from it - probably a realization over time that anything that creates darkness can hide evil. But, in this meantime, they were also trying to administer any problems the storm had caused them.

"Whoa! That as cutting it close", Tai said as he stood-up - he had tripped over Joe, who had tripped when he entered himself. "Alright, everyone: roll-call!"

"Does an 'ow' count?" Joe sat up from being face-first on the metal ground. Gomamon was squirming about within his pouch trying to get out so Joe helped him by just opening the top. "Hey, watch where you're going! I'm no stuffed animal." Joe just said, " 'Watch where you're going?' Great. Now I'm being compared to a New York Taxi."

"TK? You okay?" Matt said brushing the top of his brother's hat off with the back of his hand.

"I'm okay, Matt. You, Patamon?" TK asked the form in his hands, still covered in his own wings. "Wake me when the storm's over."

Agumon walked over to where Gabumon and Biyomon were standing. "You guys okay?" Biyomon, flapping her wings to dry them, "Yeah, I'm fine but I don't think I like rain anymore." Agumon looked over at Gabumon: "Hey, Gabumon, your fur looks like I gave it a 'Pepper Breath'!" The wolf Digimon just look at what parts of his fur he could to determine the severity of the burns: "Oh, it doesn't hurt that much. When I shed I won't have to look at it anymore anyway."

Mimi had put Palmon down and rest her against one of the walls. She then took off her hat and started wringing it out. "Ooo. . .I don't think pink is supposed to look like this", she said commenting on the damaged condition of the top of her hat.

Sora walked-up to Matt, still holding tightly her lower arm. "Matt, turn around for a second." "Huh? Oh, okay." Matt did so and gave Sora a glimpse of the back of his sweater - it had two minor burn holes in it and the skin reddened and irritated within them and other parts of the shirt were warped various other colors, some weakened.

"Whoa, Matt! Was that shirt cotton?"

"Yep."

"Doesn't hold-up the best to acid rain for one thing."

Tai came up to Sora. "Sora, I almost forgot 'bout your arm. Still hurts?" Sora had forgotten about it too; when she looked down at it - now with traces of blood creeping through her tight fingers, the realization of the pain returned. "Let me see." Sora removed her hand slowly from the wound. Wasn't that bad but it stung like anything.

"Doesn't hurt too much, Tai. It's just. . ."

"Sora", TK said coming over to her around-side from Matt. "Let me have a look at it."

"Um okay, TK", Sora said sticking out her arm wounded arm in front of TK. Tai had stepped over to get Joe over here. TK looked at the wound, wiped it off with his hand as gentle as he could and then gave it a kiss - which Sora felt in the least comfortable sense of the way. "My mommy always did this to my cuts and bruises when I got hurt." Sora just smiled and Tai dragged Joe over to her.

Izzy, meanwhile, was once again segregated from the group over by the wall where the open door to the raining outside world was. He was looking mainly in an open panel of walling where he saw the pushed-in door and then a bunch of frayed wires and cables and a bunch of cracked or snapped metal bars. His laptop was still open and on to his side, although its internal hardware had taken some damage from the rain that had seeped in through the slots and keys. Tentomon came up besides him.

"Are you okay, Izzy?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, Tentomon, I'm fine. What about you?"

Tentomon just knocked his right claw back against the side of his shell in a loud 'Knock'. "Chitin."

"Oh."

"Hey, genius!" Tai called over; Izzy gripped his laptop tighter at another ad hominem nickname. "Let's close these days so no one else unexpected stops in. . .specifically any evil Digimon."

Izzy turned about to face Tai, who was now standing next to Sora and Joe. TK and Mimi were over by the railing out-looking onto the rest of the shadow-filled factory. "Don't think we can anymore, Tai."

"Why not?"

"Well, Matt, I've been observing these wires behind the wall. They run the pneumatics that would normally open and closes the door automatically via the two control panels - one inside and the other one that we damaged outside."

Matt came up to him and look at the wall too, clueless about where this was going. "Yeah?"

"The wires look to be connected so that if one part of the system were to go down, a back-up would go into effect. Say, we destroyed the outside panel like we happened to: the pneumatics then weakened and the secondary system that went into function is the inside control panel; not the very best orientation but that's still how it worked", Izzy said in a matter-of-fact way.

"Hm. You mean the door's stuck open?"

"Precisely. We damaged the pneumatics; and, if we hadn't, we could close the door using the inside console. But now even this inner console is damaged. (pause) Each system and sub-system in this entire factory must be built in a similar way for it all to be effective: there is no master system nor secondary system designation - instead, everything has equal value and what happens to even one effects the other."

"Uh-huh. When I signed-up for camp, I didn't know I was also going to get a crash-course in 'electronic engineering 101' too", was Matt's final comment as he stared at the bunch of damaged pipe and tubing that Izzy was motioning to.

Mimi and TK - Patamon now on his hat again - were leaning on the railing looking-out over the complex. It was all in the shadows but it was easy to make out the shapes of mechanical arms and numerous long assembly lines with products on them, frozen forever in place. There were some areas down there that looked like they were damaged and objects were toppled over or throw about. Everything looked to have a coating of dust on it.

"You know, they should hire a maid to clean this place up. It's, like, completely infested in dust as far as I can see" ,Mimi commented in her almost typical way.

"Maybe they can't afford it. Or maybe this factory is abandoned or sumtin", TK answered.

"It's creepy. The lights are on - red and dimly might I add, they might want to look into that because anyone who may stop by can barely see their hand in front there face and all - but no one's home."

"Patamon, can you here anyone doing anything out there?", TK asked, still looking out into the room.

Patamon on his hat lifted one of his ears (the other was still wrapped about him) and listened silently into the far end of the room for two seconds. Faintly, he could make something out amid the silence. "I hear something. It sound far away though; kind'of like. . .machines working."

"Well, I guess someone is at home after all. I hope they have a fresh change of clothes. Ooo…maybe something fresh and leafy-green to eat too. (Mimi was a vegetarian) Maybe even a nice relaxing shower…"

"Mimi!" Tai called.

"Okay. . .my bad. . .forget about the 'shower' ", she said. As an afterthought she was going to turn about and make a comeback but half-way she stopped and rested her eyes on Palmon - whom Gomamon and Yokomon were attending to with a cold-pack from Joe's bag. "At least something to help poor Palmon", she said aside and lower than before.

Tentomon was standing just inside the doorway looking out at the storm. "Doesn't look like it'll be passing anytime soon."

"I guess we're just gon'na have to ride it out in here then", Gabumon said coming-up behind him and stopping aside. As he stopped a bolt of lightning crashed down onto the dunes above, scattering sand about. "Oh yeah?", Tentomon said, "Well. . .SUPER SHOCKER!" He fired his attack at the sand beyond the wreckage of the awning and it made a similar burst as the lightning. "Ha!" And just as he said that, another lighting bolt crashed down right in front of them where Tentomon's attack had collided, but making an even more impressive eruption of sand.

"Whoa!" Tentomon exclaimed turning around and quickly moving back into the complex. "Okay, okay! You win!"

Gabumon could just snicker as he watched his comrade retreat. Another bolt crashing close-by again, however, stopped him from snickering and he too quickly moved inside to avoid being struck. "Oh!"

"You two had better stay as close to being out of the doorway as possible", Matt said as Gabumon ran up and stopped behind him.

"Ye-ah, lightning tends to strike at the taller objects foremost than anything else", Izzy said, almost not listening.

"Tai, does that mean we should continue further into this factory, away from the opening?" Agumon said down at Tai's side. Tai turned momentarily to answer: he was watching Joe as he bandaged up Sora's arm the best he could with the toilet paper he had taken-out before.

"Don't know. Might be better if we just crash right here until the storm ends."

"I think we should continue onwards inside. We don't know what else is here, maybe something we can use", Matt said.

"What if it's some evil Digimon?" Gomamon said. "Remember that we're not fully able to Digivolve this weak."

"What if it isn't? Whoever it is could provide us with help", Gabumon said.

"But what about the storm outside? If it starts blowing the rain through the front door…", Sora started.

"Since the door is open that means we'll be the first to know", Tai said. "I think, it'd be safer that way. Right, Izzy? (pause but nothing) Iz?" Tai turned about and - not much to his surprise - found Izzy determinedly staring at a console on the wall similar to the one outside. "Oh, okay. Never-you-mind me."

"Well, Tai? Your call again", TK said turning about, still leaning on the railing.

"Yeah, we need to change. We can't continue with damaged garb like this on", Mimi said coming-up from behind Joe.

Tai thought about it for a minute - any of their attention spans didn't permit any longer. "Okay, how 'bout this: we'll set-up camp here on this platform. We're by an easy exit if case need be and plus it may provide for us our only light source."

"What about our supplies? We're still running below our average low", Joe said, rolling another foot of paper about Sora's arm firmly.

"Gabu, Agu, Matt and I will go and check about another part of this factory for anything we can salvage; we'll meet back here later. The rest of you stay and set-up for the night." Tai said. "If we don't come back in an hour: we're still looking."

"And the evil Digimon?" Matt asked.

"Ok-ay. . .we'll. . .", Tai said slowly, looking about for some easy answer to this one. He passed over everyone and then stopped at Izzy, who was now rubbing his hand over the aforementioned panel. "We'll take Izzy with us. His Digimon Analyzer can help in that department."

"Huh? What about my Digimon Recognition Program?" Izzy asked turning about.

"Over here, Iz."

"But I thought I'd be staying with the others and. . .", he said, thumbing over his shoulder at the panel.

"Over here, now!"

"Okay, okay. Don't rush me." Izzy crossed the room to the group. He lifted his laptop up to chest height and rest it in his two hinged hands for support. He then remembered how damaged it had gotten by looking at it: parts of the plastic shell were burned-over, most of the keys had lost their designations - of course, he didn't really need them - and small traces of smoke were slipping-out from in between the keys. The screen looked intact although it flashed periodically in static. He showed it to the rest of the group.

Well, this might put a serious cramp in his laborious hours of doin' nothing, Mimi thought.

"Oh, I forgot that the rain also did that", Tai said. "But it still looks 'okay'. Does the Analyzer still work?"

"Give me a second." Izzy flipped the computer back around and began typing, pulling-up and turning 'on' the program Gennai had upgraded his computer with only about a week ago. "This also gives me a chance to see if my infrared port still works and is aligned clearly. (pause) Agumon, come closer."

As Agumon took one step forward, the red light that was his infrared Internet connection port on the back on his laptop's base lit up. Izzy aimed it roughly at him and pressed the 'enter' key. Onscreen came a picture of Agumon and then individual stats for the Digimon appeared on the side, one at a time. A digital-like voice then came from the computer's speaker: "_Agumon. . .Rookie Form. . .Vaccine Type. . .Attack: 'Pepper Breath'._"

"Everything appears to be in fully operational order. . ."

"That's good."

Matt leaned over to Tai, speaking aside, "Yeah but what are we going to so with it? Show the evil Digimon a picture of themselves and hope they get scared and run off?"

"You're crampin' my plan", Tai hissed over to him, aside too.

"I would still much rather like to find out what this place manufactures so. . ."

"Well then, what are we waiting for?" Tai said grabbing Izzy's hand and suddenly pulling him towards a flight of stairs leading downwards to the floor of the rest of the factory. Agumon just jumped-off in time to join them. Matt and Gabumon took a big stride after them, just missing catching-up with them as they left ("Hey, wait up!").

"Wait for me, Izzy", Tentomon said lifting-off.

"No, Tentomon", Izzy said as he closed his laptop up with one hand and stowed it away in his backpack, "You stay here and help out setting-up. (slowing down) I'll be okay. (jerked forward by Tai towards the stairs) I think!"

Tentomon slowly lowered back down to the floor and folded his wings and shell back over. "Huh? Well. . .okay. But be careful."

"Don't worry", Tai said pulling Izzy up to the steps, Agumon coming up from the inside of his next turn left. "He'll be O-K-AAAAAYYYYY!" Agumon had stopped in front of Tai while he was going towards the stairs, but Tai had tripped-over his foot and was thrown forwards down the steps. Izzy was pulled in tow. A second later, a metal clank confirmed their crash-landing at the ground-level landing.

"Tai?" Agumon could only ask in confusion, looking down the stairs.

"Izzy!"

"Don't worry, Tentomon", TK said looking downwards from his spot leaning on the platform railing at the two who had fallen. "Izzy's okay. He landed on Tai."

"Yeah and Tai didn't feel a thing: he landed on his own head", Matt said as he started down the stairs slowly followed by Gabumon who was, in turn, followed by a confused Agumon. Sora and Mimi with-held their giggling at this; Joe and the rest of the Digimon only looked their direction in the same confusion as Agumon.

At the base of the stairs, Izzy and Tai were just beginning to stand back-up. Tai was brushing the dust off himself; Izzy was just standing-up slowly. Matt, Gabumon and Agumon were just reaching the bottom step.

"Okay, 'Grace', let's get moving", Matt said as he stepped off the metal-paneling steps.

"Oh, 'ha ha' already", Tai said finishing brushing himself off as Agumon came-up besides him. However, looking once at the expression on Matt's face: "Oh, okay, okay! I'll calm-down a bit."

"Just so as long as I don't almost get flattened again", Izzy said.

"We'd better get moving. We only have an hour and we have even less time before night-fall."

"Okay, Gabumon." Tai turned about to a wall of perpetually frozen, dusty machines that had to be crossed to continue on with the exploration. Literally, the darkness of the room echoed the blurred colors of the machines. "Anyone?"

"Let's try going through here; it looks like a route in-between the machinery", Agumon said starting to push around one of the old mechanical arms, trying his best to avoid a needle-like tool on the end, to make room to pass. It creaked and groaned under its own rusted construction as it turned on ancient servos.

"Good, at least these things aren't stuck in place. Com'mon, Matt, give me a hand here", Tai said as he gripped onto another of the arms near Agumon and started to inch it out of the way too.

"Gabumon, you help Agumon."

Izzy on the other hand was looking closely at one of the machine arms over to one-side of them. He looked-over the metallurgical construction of it. The design looked to be Earth-like in origins but there was something else haunting about it. Noticing what looked to be a dust-dominated brass plate on the base of the main limb of the unit, he leaned down and started to brush-off the dust on the plate. When it was as clear as he could make, he coughed due to the dust and then read to himself:

__

"Ultimate Arm Number 42884, Property of Honda Factory: 'Odaiba' ".

"What the heck?" he asked himself under his breath.

"Hey, Izzy!" Izzy turned about on his heels to find that the others had moved those two mechanical arms that they were working on before out of the way and had cleared a small opening to pass through to the rest of the assembly line. "Com'mon; we don't have too long before we'd have to get back."

Izzy stood again and then followed Tai and Matt through the newly-opened passage. Beyond the two arms was the first of many shut-down conveyor belts that they had to bound-over. Tai went first followed by Agumon whom was too short to make the leap. Matt helped Gabumon over. Izzy followed by jumping on the belt and then standing-up for another - perhaps a better - look about. Nothing different of the room they could see little of, let alone any solid walls.

Tai, holding onto another ultimate arm on the other-side of the belt facing them this time: "They come in pairs." He began to try and move this one as it groaned in defiance; it was a lot more stuck than the last one.

"This requires two people", Agumon said as he joined-in, the arm still sticking as bad as before. "Okay", he finally said, "more than two people."

"Here, move aside; we'll get it", Matt said as he and Gabumon stepped up and began to help. It very slowly budged but still not as fast as the first. Izzy jumped down to help them but then stopped as he saw a mess of wires connected to the bottom of each of the arms, one large dark blue one in particular with the word 'Fluid' on it. He moved-up to where the pipe connected to the base of the mechanical arm Tai and Matt were working-on and started to tug at it on a hunch. When he finally broke the pipe away from its connection, a short hiss was heard and the arm began to move against the other four's strength.

"It seems that some of these electronic construction appendages are still connected to a pressure-compressed source of liquid to power their hydraulics, guys. The ones that don't move initially have to be disabled by cutting off their source of compression."

Tai and Matt looked at him. "Well, thank-you very much, Professor. We'll have to make note of that."

"Yeah, Gilligan; you do that."

Both Matt and Tai were actually mildly surprised as they started on another arm to get it out of the way: they didn't expect Izzy to be 'culturally educated' to even that minimum.

******* 

"Okay now, Sora. This is going to hurt a bit."

Sora nodded. Joe pulled tight the end of the toilet paper about her arm, attempting the best he could to keep pressure down to stop the bleeding.

"Ow!"

"Warned you."

Joe was just finishing bandaging-up Sora's arm with the paper. He had run it around her wounded-section of arm for the umpteen-billionth time and thought that it was as good as it will get; at least none of the blood stained through the last ten layers. "Okay, that should about do it. Mimi, can you get me the tape from my bag?"

Mimi turned about from watching the others stumble their way through the factory - which even this early was getting harder to see clearly. "Wha? Oh, okay Joe." Mimi walked over to where his bag was - over near Palmon who was still being administered by Gomamon and Yokomon. She reached into the bag and scrounged around for the tape blindly - she was looking worriedly at Palmon more-so than the bag's contents. When she finally found the tape ten seconds later, she stood and walked over to Joe, who was still holding the loose end of Sora's makeshift bandage down. Mimi held the ends while Joe taped the end down.

"Sora, just don't strain the arm until the wound heals. You not only took a seemingly deep cut but also one to a portion of your arm muscle", Joe said when he was done.

"Don't worry. As long as this place keeps as silent as it has been so far, you won't have to worry about me straining it", Sora answered.

"I wish I had remembered to sterilize the wound before bandaging it but then I must've been worried about us dehydrating first with what little water we have left."

"It's okay. Something has to cool these big machines around here down so here's hoping Tai, Matt and Izzy find a water pipe."

"Even if they do they still don't have anything to carry the water. . .", Joe trailed-off. He was just getting up with the tape and paper in one hand but immediately noticed that Mimi's hand was still tightly holding onto Sora's bandage. Following up the arm, Joe saw that Mimi wasn't paying attention to what was going on - she could've let go seconds ago - and was watching Palmon instead. "Uh, Mimi, you can let go now."

"What?" Mimi said turning back and then giving the situation a once-over. "Oh, sorry. That's probably just me off in my own little world again." She added the last part with a smile; everyone noticed that after the incident at the Geckomon Palace, Mimi had been acknowledging the fact she lives in a combination of a fantasy and the real world - with both sides always clashing.

"I'll go over and check-on Palmon right now if you'd like Mimi."

"Okay, Joe. Thanks."

Joe helped Sora stand - using her unwounded arm - and suggested that she start setting-up for the approaching night. Over at Palmon's side, first Joe then Sora went into his bag. Mimi sat down next to her friend Yokomon moved aside for her to do so. Joe looked Palmon over the best he could. What am I kidding? Joe thought. I'm studying to be a human doctor not a Digimon one. I must be a miracle worker!

"Well?" Mimi asked moving her hand on Palmon's forehead to rub the cold-pack on it about so she wouldn't get numb in one place.

"I can't definitely say. Looks like a fever of some sort considering how hot she is - especially given she's a plant - and it could also be the first signs of exhaustion from dehydration. We have been walking for long enough."

"If we had a thermometer we'd take her temperature", Gomamon said.

"That would work. . .if we knew what temperature would be normal for a plant Digimon, I mean."

Mimi removed her hand from the cold-pack wrapped in a cloth. "Oh my. I hope she's alright. . ."

"Well, as long as her fever breaks she'll be okay."

Yokomon had moved to the side of Palmon Gomamon was on - opposite of Mimi. There was a second cloth on Palmon, on her stomach, which Mimi probably figured was also cool or moist like the cold-pack-wrapped one on her head. Gomamon placed one of his paws on the cloth to check on it.

"Yokomon, bring some more water over here. The cloth is drying-up again and her stomach is still as warm as a hot-spring", he said exaggerating about the hot-springs. . .or so Mimi hoped, at least.

Joe turned to Yokomon as she bounced past him over to the open supplies behind. "Don't over-use that water. We don't have a lot of it left on reserve, if any."

"Don't worry, Joe. We won't." Yokomon took a much larger bounce when she was close and knocked the bag down to one-side as she shuffled through the contents, moving them the best she could. She was there for about five second before she came across a bottle. "Is this it? I can't tell."

"Might be." She bounced her way back over to Gomamon with a translucent green bottle. Somehow she had gotten it wrapped in the curl ornament that was on her head and that was how she was holding it. Gomamon removed it from the curl and fumbled his best to take the screw-on cap off with the claw-like three fingers on his forearms. When he had gotten it off he extended the 'palm' of his second hand (the one that had taken the cap off and was still holding it) and shook the bottle horizontally over it. A small sphere of blackness poured out of the bottle and fell onto Gomamon's hand.

"Nope, Yoko, it isn't. Keep trying", Gomamon said and Yokomon returned to the bag. "Say what is this gunk anyway?"

Joe looked at Gomamon's arm. "Hey, that's the stuff that I took from the tar-pits."

"I almost soaked a fresh wash-cloth with the stuff."

"I told you to label that bottle, Joe", Mimi said.

Joe took the bottle from Gomamon and Gomamon finished his balancing at on only two back-legs enabling him to stand. Joe waved his hand over the bottle, blowing some of the smell from it his way (trust me, it's a safer procedure) and wrinkled his nose when he got a sniff of it. "This doesn't smell much like tar."

"How would you know?"

"They were paving a street on my block when I was leaving for camp, Gomamon. The smell's been stuck in my nose since."

"Yeah, but what does paving a street have to do with tar?" ask Gomamon who admittedly hadn't been in the real world yet, let alone understood much about the activities there.

Mimi looked up from Palmon at the bottle Joe was holding. Although she had been watching Palmon intently, she had been keeping up with the conversation over the bottle. It wasn't the most engaging one, she admitted to herself, but it was better than pure silence. "Here, let me have a smell and see if I don't know what it is."

"Got it!" Yokomon called over from the bag as she produced a transparent green with one of the pints of the remaining water in it and carried it over to Gomamon in the same manner as she had the first bottle. Gomamon tried to take it with his left paw so he could uncap this one too but when he lifted it, he found that the dot of 'tar' he had gotten from the other bottle had stuck to both his hand and the metal ground. Yokomon held the bottle as Gomamon tried in vain to clean the goop from his hand but just spread it worse.

Mimi took the bottle from Joe's out-stretched hand and took it to her nose. After just one whiff, she quickly pulled the bottle away, wrinkled her nose in a similar manner as Joe did and cringed at the smell, moving the bottle away from her face.

"Know what it is?" Joe asked.

"Yeah, I do. Crude, un-manufactured oil - perhaps #23 type - mixed-in with the tar."

"What?" Gomamon, still in the same predicament, asked.

"How'd you know that?" Joe asked.

"Well", Mimi said, handing back the glass container, "One of the jobs my father did once was inspect a business refinery - an _Exxon_, I think - that supplied his company with the oil it needed for its factory; it happened to be my luck it was 'take your daughter to work' day. There was this one room that was piping the oil out of a big docked ship to the rest of the factory. The room positively reeked of this stuff - lucky for me I was wearing extra strong French perfume that day."

"And I bet you can even tell me the name of the perfume as well. . ." Joe said aside.

"_My Sin_, I think."

Sora, who was starting to unroll some blankets and pillows with Tentomon's help, couldn't help but giggle at this.

Mimi continued: "Anyway, the worker showing us about gave us these weird face-masks to wear, he said that they'd help us breath in the thick oil-smelling air there. Although it helped a bit, and was probably just to help keep us in good health from all the fumes. I still remember that odor vividly."

"Oil, eh?" Joe took the cap from the place where the troubled Gomamon put it down, capped the bottle and then placed it down by the ground next to his foot. He also took the cloth off Palmon's stomach and held it in one hand. "That may still be of some use later. Now, Yokomon, let me have that bottle of water. We can't use too much of it."

Gomamon about now was stuck to the ground by both his front paws because he couldn't get the tar/oil off either of his palms, which he rubbed together to try and clean off. TK was the only person who wasn't doing anything at the moment and saw the white seal struggling there. He ran over the spilt contents of the supplies bag and took an already stained towel from the pile and then ran over to Gomamon to help wipe the gunk off.

"Thanks, TK."

"No prob`, Gomamon."

******* 

"Keep silent and stick to the shadows."

"No difficulty in doing that; just tell us where we're going."

"I can't see any of my paws a foot in front of my face."

"Want I should 'Pepper Breath' us a light, Tai?"

"*sigh* How'd I recruit a reconnaissance group like this?"

"Ask the Digivices. They're what got us here in the first place."

Tai's group had crossed the room of inert assembly line machines - which was about a good seventy five feet blanketed in a mist or vapor. After that, they had crawled into an air duct system when they found that the room had no doors on the other-side. Currently they were inching their way through the factory's system using sparse light from bolted gratings below to see at intervals. The aluminum duct shined eerie glares from the light at times; machines and sounds could be heard all about. Mostly though the group crawled forward in darkness.

"It looks as if we're coming up to another grating, guys", Tai called back from the front of the queue.

"Let's hope this one can get us out of this vent", Matt called as the third person.

Agumon was roughly following behind Tai - 'roughly' because he couldn't see him most of the time - and Gabumon the same for Matt. Izzy followed the bunch. "Agumon, pal, is it just me or does the air about here seem hotter than usual?"

"You must be mistaken, Gabumon. That fur coat must provide too much insulation."

"True, Gabumon never does take it off", Izzy said from behind the group.

"But I do smell something hanging in the air", Agumon continued, "Nothing like I've ever smelt before."

"Corner - right", Tai said as his fingers rubbed-up against the perpendicular wall of the duct that signified a 'right turn'. "And we're getting closer to the next grating; I can see it's source of light right from here."

Once the group had turned the corner in the duct system, Matt looked past Tai's form up ahead of him: "Is that the grated area, there?"

"Yeah, let's hope this one is unbolted."

The entire group crawled up to the grated section as it spewed light upwards into the chamber. The actual grating was at the bottom of a circular, foot-deep indent in the 'floor'. Tai and Matt took opposite sides of the indent and reached-in to alternately push and pull at the bars. Agumon and Gabumon stayed on one side with Izzy. The light from the exposed outside lit up a bit of the duct section they were in. "Hey, this one feels like it's just stuck! Maybe just a few more pushes!"

"You mean 'pulls' ", Tai said, "Don't you, Matt?"

As the two tried to pull/push the grating out of it's lodging (they were still trying to figure out which) Izzy at the back of the group was waiting. He dark eyes were commonly used to straining to see thanks to his hours of endless work on his laptop, sometimes even at the worst of background lighting; but, even this was pushing his luck. He looked at one of the aluminum walls to his right just to give his eyes something to do so they wouldn't start playing tricks on him and that's when he noticed a weird barely centimeter deep, horizontal indent running along the wall of the duct. 

Putting his finger on it and running across it, he found that it was not only parallel to the floor of the duct and kept at an even height but also ran over the complete wall of the duct and at the same depth everywhere. It was as if. . .something just a bit too big for it's own good had bullied its way through the duct system before them. Looking on the opposite wall, he found yet a similar - if not exact - indent running from one-end to the other.

"Uh…guys?"

"In a minute, Izzy; we're busy at the moment", Tai said as he pulled upwards on the grate along with Matt.

Matt stopped afterwards: "Let's move on. This grate may not have anything bolting it down but it's as stuck in place as my hair is."

"Should we try pushing. . ."

"GAH!"

The next event was almost instantaneous. Agumon threw himself forward in the small crawl-space and dropped his weight down onto the grating. The stuck circular panel of bars gave way and dropped both itself and Agumon's compact form down to the ground of the room. As soon as he landed, Agumon took a readied fighting stance. The grate clanked to the ground in one solid resonance.

"Er…uh…well, that is one way to get it un-stuck", Matt said.

Gabumon dropped through the hole too and landed behind Agumon. He stood and turned the other direction taking a similar 'ready' stance, guarding the other way. "Oof! Com'mon, you guys, get down here."

"Coast's clear."

Tai dropped down the opening and grabbed onto the edge - it was still a good four meter drop to the floor. The close-to-the-wall grate opening was accompanied by a metal bar ladder going down the wall alongside to the floor. Tai grabbed onto it and started his way down: "Thanks, Agumon, but did you have to remind me of water. I'm still dying of thirst here." Tai reached the floor and Matt and finally Izzy followed. They had to jump the last meter and a half down to floor because the ladder ended abruptly as if it were supposed to be used by something bigger than themselves.

Izzy was the last to jump down the four-and-a-half feet to the ground. He landed in a crouch due to the fact he was off-balance. The silver hallway had decided constructed, yet almost unexplainably smooth, panel walls and was lit by light sources from above. The floor was like the walls but of a darker shade of silver. The ceiling was a mesh of pipes and panels. To the direction Izzy faced, there was a T-shaped intersection; the opposite direction slowly arced into a turn. Overlapping, sporadic noises echoed about them - much more audible than before.

"Whoa. What do you think the electric bill around here is?" Tai asked as Agumon and Gabumon put their high-strung guards slowly down.

"Probably a lot more than you can afford", Matt answered.

"This looks very much different from that other factory on Vile Island", Gabumon said looking about.

"You think an Andromon lives here?"

"Wouldn't doubt something like that, Agumon."

"Okay, Iz", Tai started turning about to face Izzy, who hadn't yet stood from his landing and was looking about. "Can we get a scan of this place or what-not?" Although the terminology was very sketchy, Izzy got what Tai was trying to say. He pulled his laptop out from his backpack and opened it up. He started typing and within a few seconds the tiny light alongside his infrared port began to blink; Izzy's screen, however, showed nothing but an open window of static.

"Well, Iz?" Matt asked.

"There's too much electromagnetic radiation being emitted from the machinery around us; it's blanketing out my infrared signal", Izzy said, still typing and now standing up. "I'd need a precise target for my port to focus on to work correctly in this environment."

"Super: that means we'll have to find trouble first", Matt said nonchalantly.

Agumon sniffed the air: "That weird smell's close…it's an old smell too."

Gabumon looked over past Agumon and saw Izzy walking off down the hallway towards the intersection slowly, eyes on his screen. "Matt, should we let him go off on his own?"

"Com'mon, Gabumon", Tai answered for his owner. "He's barely a few feet away as it is."

Izzy took a few steps forward trying to clear his signal up if it were possible. Anywhere he went there was a solid wall of static on his screen with the faintest blip every now and then that quickly vanished as it appeared. Izzy stopped walking only a dozen short steps or so away from the others when he heard low hums coming from the walls about them. He looked-up just in time to catch a glimpse of numerous rectangular panels in the walls sliding downwards and intricate pipe-like tubes extending an inch from the wall. On sight and as reaction Izzy yelled, "Guys, hit the dirt!"

Tai and Matt were just dumb-founded in place when Izzy's warning had informed them that numerous of those pipes had also opened around them from the walls. Luckily for them, Agumon and Gabumon tackled and knocked them to the floor just as the neon-green energy bolts fired from each of the tubes at intervals. On the ground, the five covered their heads and ears; amazingly, the pipe-like cannons were only positioned at what would be their head and chest heights. Also as eerie, the only sound the shots made were the 'Fooms' of the pulse as it left the tube and then a slight crackle when it collided with the other wall. After ten seconds of this aimless firing, the cannons stopped and retracted into the walls.

Tai was the first to look-up from on the floor: he had a minor ache in his back where Agumon's claws had landed and the goggles that were perpetually plastered to his forehead had slid down over his eyes when he fell. "Everyone okay?" When his dizziness passed, he noticed he was looking at the soles of Izzy's shoes. "Hey, you four: speak-up!"

"I'm okay, I'm okay. I think", Matt answered as he pushed himself up. "Gabumon where'd you learn to tackle someone like that? You should've been a football player."

" 'Football'? Is that anything like the sport soccer that Sora was teaching us?" the wolf Digimon asked as he started to get-up.

"We must've set off some sort of trap, Tai. I say we were being expected", Agumon said as he stood-up. Izzy was doing likewise - although, he had landed with his head forward giving it a nasty bump on impact. "Maybe, Agumon, but it wasn't like we had a choice in the matter of coming…here?" The last part of Tai's sentence was stretched-out when he saw some sort of faint bar of light crossing the floor just behind Izzy's shoe. "Hey, Izzy, watch how you back-up and look at this."

Izzy turned about when he sprawled on the ground to face Tai who was pointing at - as far as Izzy's eyes were concerned - blank air. "What are you pointing to, Tai?" Tai shook his finger at the point as to stress his point: "This! The red bar of light right here." "But, Tai, there isn't a 'red bar of light' right there", Izzy answered. Tai fixed the goggles on his forehead again and looked again: it WASN'T there, just as Izzy had said.

"No way, I just saw it."

"Tai, let me see your goggles."

"Okay, here." Tai took-off and handed Izzy his goggles, which he immediately put on. He took one note about Tai's head size: they both wore the same hat-size and then looked at the ground where the supposed 'bar' was. To his surprise, he could plainly make out the faint outlines and fluxes of a red light bar going across the hall.

"You're right, Tai. There is a light here."

"Told you."

"The blue tint of your goggles must be picking-up the red color of the beam in a similar way that a third dimension is drawn into a picture with red and blue inks - an optical illusion."

"What do you think it's for?" Agumon said crouching over, looking suspiciously at the light that 'wasn't there'.

"Don't know", Izzy said as he moved his palm into the path of the beam and cut it off from completing its circuit from one side to the other. Almost as soon as he had done this, the numerous wall panels opened up above them - luckily no one was standing yet - and started letting off round after round of shots for ten seconds. "It's a defensive trip-wire!" Izzy yelled before the guns started firing. The group stared upwards to get a better look on the weapons firing at what would've been them but none of them could make out what kind they were, not even Izzy. Ten seconds later, the defenses shut-off and closed-down. Tai and his group could now stand with ease.

"Well, at least we know that no one _in particular _was expecting us", Tai said as he got his goggles back from Izzy, who was just leaning back over to pick-up his computer.

Gabumon: "So which way do we go?"

"I think we should head down to that T-intersection and then split into two there, meeting back-up in a few minutes", Matt said pointing the direction Izzy initially wandered.

"No, too complicated. It's obvious someone doesn't want anyone going either of those directions for some reason and we have two paths and only one set of goggles there. If there are anymore trip-wires, I mean…", Izzy said.

"He has a very good point. Who know what other kinds of traps are that way?" Agumon said, looking up to Tai.

"Okay then: we'll go the other way - there's only one path that way", Tai said as he started walking, goggles on and over his eyes. Fortunately, there weren't any if only a scattered few trip-wires that direction as he could see.

"We might as well. We've gotten this far", Matt agreed and followed Izzy who was following Tai and Agumon down the one-way corridor. 

After about five minutes of marching that direction, the group stopped out on the top of a grating balcony above a room. In the room were about three assembly-lines similar to the ones in the room they had first entered except for the fact that these were actually working. A red glow of molten metal illuminated the room. The conveyor belts, instead of having machines on it, had globs of some sort of black liquid on it and various shaped and sized parts on it at intervals. Machinery was audible but not too loud not to be heard over it easily; sweat-breaking heat was present, as in contrast to the cool hallway they had just left.

"Prodigious!" Izzy exclaimed.

"I hope this production-line isn't as useless as the one back at Vile Isle", Matt said leaning on the metal guard rail and looking down at the bay. There didn't look to be any humans nor Digimon about; just the machines working on their own. Tai knew what Matt meant: he meant that the machines didn't just put some unknown device together only to take every copy of it apart in a fit of perpetual energy.

"This must've been what I felt earlier", Gabumon said.

"And what I smelt. Look you can see the bottom of the air-duct up there", Agumon pointed upwards at the ceiling where a twist of rafters, pipes and other bars hung in tangles.

"Well, this is a start. So far there isn't anything in this room that should worry us any", Tai said. He side-glanced at Izzy to see if he was amazed; he looked rather controlled actually. Tai then looked back at the conveyor belt which slowly turned along the contents on it. There was something peculiar about the design of it, with all those weird struts supporting it but then almost everything in the Digital World had some peculiarity to it.

"This must be a main section of operations for the factory", Izzy said. "That black liquid looks to be fresh as if burnt but with all that still solid metal, their furnace must be broken."

"Who knows if they even made the stuff melt? But that would explain the heat", Matt said. "It's getting almost too hot in here for me", Gabumon said down near the ground.

"Yeah, even for me, Tai", Agumon agreed. "There's no one here; we should keep looking before we almost bake again."

"Yeah, you're right. Let's. . ."

Izzy hissed, "Duck!" Once again, the present company hit the dirt - or rather, the metal grated balcony - not wanting a replay of the previous event. But after a second, Tai and Matt uncovered their heads again; Agumon and Gabumon were still in position and Izzy was looking out into the factory. 

"Hey, Iz! What gi. . .Htmph!

"Shhh", Izzy said with one finger on his mouth, using the other hand to block Tai's. "I did that for a reason. Look." Izzy pointed forwards towards the side of one of the bigger machines that was there, a non-moving one. Then Tai saw what he hadn't the first time: something was there moving! The thing levitated in mid-air and had a elliptical silver body with cracks that exposed red eyes and a wavy slit that obviously was a mouth. On either side of its body were two gears held on by a connection behind. The gears were a dulled, obsidian black. The machine was seemingly checking-out the unmoving machine that it was hovering next to.

"What is that? A Digimon?" Matt asked, now directing his attention to the creature Izzy had seen.

"None that I've ever seen", Gabumon answered. "Then again, I haven't really seen that many machine-type Digimon myself."

"Let's try and get closer", Tai said as he slowly began to get-up in a way so as not to make too much noise. Izzy, Matt, Agumon and Gabumon slowly got up and crossed-over to one-side of the balcony area where there was a stairway going down to the base level. They walked trying not to make too much - or any if possible - noise with their steps. After some twenty steps, the group found themselves at ground-level and hiding behind a rather large horizontal pipe, coupled and supplemented by a few smaller ones and gauges. They all looked over at the machine creature as inspected the other, dormant machine with a scrutinizing eye.

"Tai, should we attack? Or take it as a friendly thing?" Agumon asked.

"Don't know. I'm not even sure if that's a real Digimon. Izzy, what does your Analyzer say?"

Izzy lifted the flap of his laptop up and started typing, starting-up the Digimon database that Gennai had programmed into it. When he was ready, he aimed his laptop at the creature when its back was turned and pressed 'enter'. A green light next to the infrared port started to blink again, meaning that it was working.

Just a second after the port began functioning, the silver thing snapped erect in mid-air - it was leaning forward just a second ago - and spun around in their general direction. The group ducked further behind the pipes out of the line-of-sight of the machine before it was completely about; Izzy covered his infrared port just for extra assurance. But that wasn't enough for the machine: it had definitely sensed something that had not fit and slowly hovered its way over their direction.

"Oh man, that thing detected your infra, Iz! It's coming this way", Matt said, peering through cracks in the pipes. "Hope you know what it is."

"I do. The port was exposed long enough to get a signal back", Izzy said as he typed on his computer, taking his other hand off the port. "Well, then get it up already", Tai said then turned to Agumon who was still wondering if he should attack.

Quickly, Izzy got a profile of the creature up onto his screen. "Okay…it's a Geardramon: a data-type, Rookie Digimon. Those two gears on either side of him aren't just for show; they can spin perpetually, feeding off the constant energy about them. They also help him perform his signature attack - 'Gear Strip'."

"Swell. It's only a Rookie, right?" Tai asked.

"Yeah."

"Good; then two champions shouldn't have any trouble with it."

"But remember the Digimon are too tired to Digivolve", Matt said.

"Yeah, although I'm good for fighting at the moment, I don't think I could Digivolve on my energy", Gabumon said.

"Then we'll have to settle for two Rookies versus another", Agumon said.

"Shh. You four keep it down", Izzy said silently as he looked-up from his screen. "This also a good time to note that machine-type Digimon can be much more powerful than up to four organic-type Digimon at the same level!"

"What?!" all four of them said in a low unison.

Just as they exclaimed that, the Geardramon rose from the other-side of the pipes that they were hiding behind and took them all by surprise! It was spinning both its wheels like fan-blades. "Unwarranted intruders have been sighted; targets in range. Locked!" the Geardramon announced in a monotone but human-like voice as it spotted the five and moved an internal target sign onto each of them.

"Huh? Gah!" the five said almost instantaneously as they turned and found themselves staring into the crimson-red pupils of the Geardramon.

"GEAR STRIP!" the machine cracked as its right-rapidly spinning gear flew off the triangular supports holding it in place and flew towards the children and their Digimon. Izzy ducked just in time for the flying gear to go over his head, but not before slightly ricocheting off the larger of the pipes they were hiding behind. Tai and Matt fell aside to either direction and bumped their Digimon out of the way too. The gear clanked against the metal ground - breaking a huge chunk off the part it hit into - rebounded up off the wall - taking a piece of it too - before spinning back to the stationary Geardramon. Before, when the gear had crashed into the pipe, it had broken a crack of it open and steam was now pouring out of it onto the Geardramon, although it looked un-bothered physically by the heat.

"It just ripped the ground to rubble!"

"That can't be, Matt! Metal is malleable, not brittle!" Izzy said as he landed on his side.

"Whatever that means", Agumon said as he regained balance.

"Alert! Visual lost. Optic sensors have been inhibited", the Geardramon announced in a drone-voice as its gear landed back into place as smoothly as it had left. The Geardramon was registering a blank reading from the 'intruders'.

"PEPPER BREATH!"

But it registered that. With a spin in a complete circle, the Geardramon used its own whirling gear to disperse the fireball and blow away the steam clouding his sensors and the Digi-destined. Tai and Matt were just starting their assent on the stairs again, Izzy was about to follow them and the Digimon were standing ready. "Intruders reacquired."

"BLUE BLASTER!"

"PEPPER BREATH!"

The Geardramon dodged the attacks left then right and then returned to its original position. "Target's persistence continues. Avail you not, it will. SUATERING POMMEL!" The spinning gears aside each of its body then started firing off in large quantities what appeared to be inch-long glowing red pulses at the two Digimon. They jumped to the left and right of the attacks, accidentally leaving the path open for the attacks to strike at the three humans climbing the stairs. "Gah!" Izzy said, jumping as one of the pulses just barely missed him on the stairs; but that jump also threw him off-balance backwards.

"Got'cha, man", Matt said as he quickly turned about and grabbed Izzy by a flailing wrist, stopping him from falling.

"Com'mon, Izzy let's go! Let's go!" Tai called from the top of the stairs. The pommel attack continued to rip the supports under the stairs apart was Matt and Izzy were both almost at the top. 

Then the supports collapsed. Matt made a jump for the top along with Izzy from their place at about half-way up. Matt grabbed onto the ledge of the balcony section by his fingers and Izzy had hold of Matt around his legs and hanging tightly. He was still about four meters above the ground. "Uh. . .little help here!"

"Hey, hold on! I can't pull you both-up at the same time!" Tai said kneeling over the edge of where the stairs used to be. "Izzy, grab hold; then you, Matt." He reached down with his hand and Izzy shifted his weight from Matt to a now straining Tai. Within moments he had both of them on the balcony again - they were all sitting and breathing heavily.

"Man, you two have to go on a diet if I'm gon'na have to be doing that", Tai said. Both Matt and Izzy were going to rebuke when they were interrupted. Namely, a gear sliced through the center of the balcony and just missed nicking Tai's forehead. "But, first let's get out of here!" Tai continued and started getting-up after the gear past completely over him, bounced off the wall behind and back to the Geardramon.

"Hey, you leave them alone!" Gabumon said down on the lower level.

"If I were you, I'd listen to us, Geardramon. We didn't mean to intrude. We. . .", Agumon started but never got to finish.

"Intruder negotiations do not compute. GEAR STRIP!" The gear flew off the support and Agumon jumped backwards, just as it crashed into the ground before him. Unfortunately, it bounced upwards and then ricocheted off Agumon's forehead - knocking him backwards - before returning. Agumon was luckily caught by Gabumon who was behind as he fell backwards. "Agumon! You alright?"

"That thing packs a whollop!" he said and then stood back-up on his own, looking at the machine.

"How about we try together at once?"

"Worth a try, Gabumon."

"Targets are stationary. Locked!" Geardramon said.

"BLUE BLASTER!"

"PEPPER BREATH!"

"SUATERING POMMEL!"

Matt, Tai and Izzy were just running into the hallway again when they heard all three of those simultaneous attacks announced. The next thing they knew, they were thrown to the floor of the hallway for about two feet. A massive fireball had erupted right outside from the lower level and the force had knocked Izzy flying and his laptop skidding to a stop about a foot from where he fell. Tai and Matt didn't fall as much from the force as they did from the weight of having their Digimon thrown upwards from the lower-level, into the hallway and landing on them when the they had turned around.

Tai was the first to turn-over, gently pushing Agumon's weight off of him to look back out into the room. He was met with the doorway being blocked by a wall of light gray steam and smoke, probably from blast. Matt then did likewise with Gabumon, whose fir was still none the better from the blast. "Gabumon, buddy, are you okay?"

"Ooo. . .my horn hurts."

"Agumon, you okay? Did you get it?" Tai said looking over his companion who was just sitting-up straight.

"Don't know. . .the blast blinded me from seeing", Agumon said wiping his eyes with his fists.

His question was answered when two glowing red lights and then the form of Geardramon hovered out of the mists and entered the hallway. "Targets have relocated. Reacquired."

"Er. . .I guess that means 'no'."

Izzy turned about from his stomach-first position on the floor and saw the Geardramon too. "Guys! Given the circumstances, I'd say this is the best time for a tactical retreat!" He then climbed to his feet and reached for his fallen laptop in front of him.

"Whatever he said, I'm with him!" Tai exclaimed as he got up and help Agumon to his feet. "Ditto", Matt called back as he helped Gabumon up. Izzy reached down for his laptop as the Geardramon began to hover forwards into the room. He grabbed the laptop's edge but stopped in place when his ears picked-up the familiar sound of panels sliding open on the walls from both sides. He muttered a curse to himself and then said aloud, "Trip-wire!"

Everything after that occurred like a blur.

The room was lit-up with the glow of green plasma firing from wall to wall like a shooting gallery. Tai, Matt, Izzy and the Digimon ran back down the hall like a fury, jumping and dodging plasma shots; this time they set the device off, the cannons fired diagonally, towards the floors and ceilings too. At the same time, they had to dodge the 'suatering pommel' that the Geardramon shot at them from behind. It too was in the shooting gallery and was doing its best to maneuver about the randomized energy bolts.

"This is not good!" Tai yelled from the front of the darting queue.

"Oh, who's now sound. . .Yeow!" Matt began but then skidded to a halt, and Gabumon behind him, as an energy bolt reflected off the floor, almost hitting him. He then continued running and talking: ". . .sounding like Joe?!"

"I know a retreat needs cover-fire, but this is TOO much!", Izzy exclaimed in his run, covering the group's back.

"Then let's get rid of some of it! BLUE BLASTER!"

Gabumon's attack struck one of the cannons' nozzles in the walls somewhere in front of him and it exploded, beginning to spew smoke from it's ruined circuitry. Unfortunately for the group, once this was done more panels opened on the ceiling and began to fire likewise attacks down at the floor. This made the situation even worse for the group.

"That wasn't the best thing to do, Gabumon!" Agumon called back to his companion as he jumped over a low shot.

"Indeed!" Izzy stopped abruptly within inched of another shot that would've ripped through his head. "Gabumon's attack gave the system a catalyst to upgrade its defenses!"

"Believe me, I'm glad for it!" Tai yelled in sarcasm. He then looked ahead down the hall as some of the gun-ports began to close on the walls and ceilings. But the 'pommel' attack from the Geardramon was still firing at random like some deranged machine-gun with the trigger locked-down. He looked back to catch a glimpse of it - it was close - and then he looked forward to see the metal ladder to the duct above that they had used. "There's the ladder! We're almost home-free! (pause) Agumon, give us some cover."

"I'll try, Tai!" Agumon stopped and almost turned on a dime to face the approaching Geardramon. He then took a fighting stance - none to fancy, just one that sort of said 'I'm ready'. "Com'mon, Gabumon, let's get the guys some cover!" Gabumon stopped alongside Agumon when they reached and turned to face the Geardramon too. As Izzy passed by, the two Digimon heard: "Good luck!"

The Geardramon stopped firing after a few seconds and then stopped moving altogether. The auto-guns had also ceased after their full ten seconds were up. "Two of the targets in proximity. The rest are still moving", it commented. 

"GEAR STRIP!" Agumon jumped to one-side as the flying gear flew past him and the rounded back. The Digimon then jumped back into his original place as the gear boomeranged back into place on the support.

"SUATERING POMMEL!" The attack was directed towards Gabumon this time. The pudgy wolf Digimon couldn't move fast enough to dodge to one-side of the attack so instead he hit the dirt and the energy shots flew over his face-down form.

The shots continued onwards until they came towards the ladder that led to the vent opening. Tai had been the first there and had given Matt and Izzy a leg-up to the bottom of the ladder. Tai grabbed hold of Izzy's hand after he was on the ladder and Izzy helped pull him up. "Thanks."

"Look out!" Izzy said as he pointed down the hall and the random shots began to riddle against the wall and about them. "These quarters just get closer and closer!" Tai and Izzy began climbing again, Izzy into the duct opening with the help of Matt and Tai up to the opening. Once Tai got there he took a quick-look at the Geardramon still firing at random and their Digimon dodging there best. 

"GEAR STRIP!" The attack caught Tai off-guard at first: he was surprised greatly to find the large black gear hurtling towards him and the ladder.

"Whoa!" Tai exclaimed at the attack. He was only a bit more than three-fourths of the way up the ladder so he just jumped for the lower edge of the duct, hoping to catch into it. But, much to his dismay, the gear collided with the ladder first, ripping it to shreds off the wall and then rebounded off the wall, colliding with him right in the ribs. The blow knocked the wind out of him and hit him away from reaching for the edge of the opening. 

That gave him about five meters to fall. . .

Or not.

"Huh?" Tai looked-upwards just as his hand was snatched by Matt who was leaning out over the opening from above. "Got'cha! Here let me give you a lift." He reached down with his other hand and Tai soon found himself inside the duct with the other two.

"Let's try to corner this Digimon, Agu?"

"Why not, Gabu. I'll take the rear."

"Non-Digimon intruders have fled into the service ducts. SUATERING POM. . .", the Geardramon began as it rotated itself upwards to fire its weapons at the duct. But he was cut-off before he could finish by Agumon: "Hey, Geardramon, heads-up!"

"What?" Geardramon quickly leveled out again to center on a charging Agumon that was closing in on him. "GEAR STRIP!" Just as the gear flew off its support, Agumon jumped with all his might - or what it was at the moment - and cleared both the Digimon and its flying gear. The gear continued on and flew without an exact direction but headed towards Gabumon. The wolf Digimon followed an unusual urge he had, ran forward and also jumped upwards toward the gear. When he came back down, the gear was clamped stationary in his mouth. "Yeech! It tastes like oil!"

"Input does not compute! One primary weapon is disabled", the Geardramon crackled. Then in a less-computerized tone he added, "Give me back my gear!"

"PEPPER BREATH!"

Agumon's blast struck the Geardramon right on the opposite gear's supports, igniting their middle-points a red metal glow. The dinosaur-like Digimon grabbed onto the support in a cooler place and was capable of pulling the now weakened metal bars off of the Geardramon's body, plus a quickly spinning gear, as it mechanically shrieked. "There, that should clip your arsenal."

"I may not have the energy left to fire at you anymore, but I'm not powerless yet", Gabumon said just after he took the gear out his mouth and took it in his right paw. He then wound his arm backwards and then threw it forward, throwing the gear in the similar manner of the Geardramon's attack. "Try some of your own medicine!"

The collided with the Geardramon right in the face and, even given that it was a metal one, the machine cringed on its collision and let out another mechanical yelp. Where the nose should've been on the rounded face there was now a crack that spewed minor sparks. "Warning: tolerance levels at fifty percent!"

"Make it even higher then!"

Agumon had run-out of the energy to perform another of his attacks too so instead used the gear he also had. He slashed the still rapidly-spinning gear across the back of the Geardramon's form, leaving an even bigger gash there which more electrical sparks crackled out of than the front one. After the slash, the gear flew loose of the broken-off supports and flew off somewhere; Agumon dropped the broken metal pipes.

The Geardramon was thrown forward at this hit from behind, which made it lose it all of its mobility control. It flew towards Gabumon uncontrollably only to be vertically smashed by one of wolf Digimon's fists when it came near. The smoking form of the Digimon crashed backwards again, down to the floor and when it hit on the ground it deleted from all of its damage in a discharge of static. The fight was over.

"Com'mon, Agumon, we'd better not wait around for the clean-up crew to show themselves!"

"Right, Gabumon. Let's get out of here while we still have the energy to move!"

The two ran over to the spot just underneath the opening to the service duct above. "Hey up there, a little help down here!" Tai appeared over the ledge and then reached downwards for his companion.

"Hey, good going! Is it gone, Agumon?"

"He's toasted!" Gabumon answered of him as Agumon stepped out of tai's view to get a running-start. Gabumon gave him a leg-up and he was able to grab onto Tai's grasping out-stretched hand. Unfortunately, Agumon weighed just a bit more than Tai could handle and Gabumon's weight added to Agumon's took the three children to heft back into the duct.

"Okay, so where do we go now? Continue onwards?" Matt asked.

"That would be suicide", Izzy said. It came-out deadly blunt but that really wasn't the mood Izzy was trying to project. "The Digimon ran out of energy to use their attacks so they'd have limited effectiveness at being able to protect themselves, let alone us, if we should come across anymore temperamental locals. I'd say that we should head back to the room we originally entered and recuperate."

"Yeah, there really isn't much more we can do at this rate", Tai said as he crawled back around Matt and Izzy to get back to the front of the queue. Agumon followed him. 

"Let's get moving before our one-hour limit is up."

*******

Two minutes after the Digi-destined had made their way around the service duct's corner and were back on their way to the main room they started this adventure in, another machine Digimon was passing through the hallway from the opposite direction. His numerously segmented steel legs moved along uniformly and precisely to avoid stepping on any of the laser trip-wires in resounding 'Clanks'.

The creature's upper body was like two steel-gray blocks stacked on each other. Its head was nothing more than a single, plain blue-glass dome on the top of its head. On what should've been its shoulder unit was it's only visible eye - an organic one; the eye inlet - which looked as if it had been cracked to make an opening although it was natural - was alongside a grating that had a broken section in the center. Two massive, multi-segmented steel arms with three large cone fingers protruded from each shoulder. A jet-pack was on its back.

The machine stopped and looked left and right at the burn marks that had been scorched onto the otherwise immaculate wall panels. It then turned again and its eye passed from the metal grating lying on the floor to the parts of broken ladder weakly hanging onto the wall to the opening duct entrance above.

"Number 16, report!" a scratchy male voice crackled over the internal communicator, although it was loud enough to be audible to the room.

"Negative visual readings on the intruders Geardramon 44 reported before he lost contact", the machine said to the other voice over the phone. It spoke in a slow, high machine-like voice. The voice was much different than a Geardramon's voice in that this one didn't have any emotion in it nor did it even sound remotely 'human'.

"Of course, you dummy! Do you actually think that anyone would stand around and wait for a clean-up crew?!"

"Question does not compute. Please rephrase inquiry."

"Oye!" the voice exclaimed. It then started again, in a lower, almost aside voice: "I'm working with mindless rejects from _Star Wars_ here. (in a full voice) What about Geardramon 44? Where's he at?"

The machine took a few steps forward and then reached down with one of it's extending hands to grab at a gear that was lying aimlessly on the ground.

"Unit 'Geardramon number 44' ceases to function."

"Give me a visual of ground zero."

"Affirmative; activating optic transmission circuits." The machine's one eye then began to glow red as it recorded the scene about it and transmitted pictures back to the person on the other end of the communications.

"Looks like a Tankmon came through there! Nothing serious, though; right?"

"Scanning", the machine said as it put its hand with the gear down to its side and the blue dome on its head blinked accompanied by digital clicks and beeps. When it stopped: "Scanning complete."

There was a pause between both side of the communications.

"Well, give me your analysis then!!" the voice exclaimed enraged over the communicator at the machine. "There are times when you ARE trying. . ."

"All machinery within a ten meter radius in fully functional condition", the Digimon machine answered.

"Finally, number 16! I'd get rid of you and find a unit with some brains, you know, but then the boss might get testy. . .and I hate always getting on his bad side. (pause) Do a DNA scan of that open service duct."

The machine safely positioned itself under the opening to the duct and lifted its arm skyward. The arm continued to extend on its segmented joints higher and higher until the end of it was completely in the duct. "Engaging deoxyribonucleic acid scan."

"Yeah, yeah. Just do it already! Ya' don't need to un-acronym it; I know what it means. Well?" the voice said. It acted this bossy on a normal basis and its tone told that.

"Scans are positive", the machine said retracting its hand. "The DNA of a Agumon and of a Gabumon are present here; three other DNA types are present as well. Those three miscellaneous types appear to be non-digital in origin."

" 'Non-digital in origin'?! Darn it! That means the Digi-destined are here!" the voice shouted.

"Insufficient analysis. The Legend of the Digi-destined is a myth created by the prophet Oramon."

"Oh, shut-off!"

"Affirmative. Going into 'stand-by' until further instructions are provided."

"Wait! I didn't mean it that way!" the voice yelled and the machine stopped before he did turn itself off. "Geez! Did I have to get such a literal machine? Even this big lug next to me is more intelligent than you! (long pause) And that isn't saying much for him!"

"Awaiting further instructions."

"Are there any other gears lying around anywhere?"

"Negative", the machine answer after a quick sweep left and then right. "There aren't any others. Just the one I have in my hand."

"Okay, then. Mekanorimon unit number 16, get back here this instant! As much as this sounds like a joke, I have another assignment for you to do."

The Mekanorimon turned about to face down the hallway towards the T-shaped intersection with a grace that only a machine could achieve. It then began to walk forward towards the intersection, avoiding all of the trip-lasers with its exaggerated step. "Affirmative, Demimon."

"It's Demi-devimon!" the creature barked from the other-side of the communicator. "How many times must I tell you that I changed my name long ago before you figure that out!?"

"That remains to be seen."

"Shut-up and get back here already. Geesh!", Demi-devimon said and then cut the transmission. Internally, the Mekanorimon was thankful that he did: it couldn't stand another minute of processing that annoying Digimon's orders and voice. The Mekanorimon continued down the hallway and turned left at the intersection, disappearing around the corner.

[Legal Mumbo-Jumbo: I don't own Digimon nor any of their characters so don't flame me on this one. . .I don't own Fanfiction.net either so don't flame me on that one either. . .Yaddy yaddy yada. . .]

Sorry for the delay between chapters but I've been busy. I'll get Chapter 3 out as soon as possible. It will hopefully be easier than this one and the last. Has anyone figured out yet what this factory constructs (I've done almost everything but out-right tell you, I think)?

--Fate--

   [1]: fate445687@aol.com



	3. Default Chapter Title

****

Infernal Machines

[Fate Hedgehog][1]

[Time: About five (four) days before the Digi-destined found Myotismon's castle and returned to Japan. . .]

It had been a time since Matt, Tai, Izzy and their Digimon had gone off through the room of dead machine arms and TK, who was acting as watch-guard over the railing of the platform that the Digi-destined had chosen to camp-out on, was getting impatient. Patamon on top of his head was partially asleep. The kid looked at his blue wrist-watch. 55 minutes; they still had five left to come back before everyone would start to worry.

"That's cutting it kind'a close", TK said, trying not to wake Patamon any further. "Hope Matt didn't run into any trouble."

"Don't worry *yawn*, TK", a tired voice from the top of his hat said down to him. "Your brother is okay. He has the others to back-him-up in case of anything."

"Oh, Patamon, I didn't mean to wake you."

"Nah, I was just resting my eyes."

"Well, you weren't resting your mouth for one thing. All those 'Z's must get awful tiring to say after a while."

"They probably *yawn* are considering how I am", Patamon said before curling back-up, his own wings acting as blankets. TK returned to 'active duty': he continued to watch the dust settle on the mechanical arms.

Joe was still acting as doctor over Palmon, who was not only still out-cold but her fever had worsened too. She was beginning to look a kelly green with very flushed 'cheeks'. It had gotten so bad that Mimi started fanning the wilting flower with her pink cowboy hat and had been doing so for a couple of minutes.

"Joe, how is she?" Mimi asked in between puffs.

Joe put down a towel he was preparing to moisten again and placed his hand to Palmon's forehead. He pulled it away sharply, cradling it in his other hand. "Hot."

"Yeah, me too. I don't think I can keep this up much longer; my arms' are beginning to sore-up a tad", Mimi answered. "I meant how do you think she's doing? That fever can't stay this high for much longer; can it?"

"Human fevers - low ones, I mean - can last for up to a few days. Digimon fevers I'm not too sure of; could last only a few hours to a full week or maybe even more." Mimi almost fell back at that. She put her hat down on the ground and pivoted backwards on her ankles so her back lay against the wall. "Oh dear. If I plan to keep this up, I may need to take a breather."

"Or a vacation." 

Joe picked the rag back-up from where he put it down and turned to grab the bottle of water from besides him. Gomamon - who had added the comment - and Yokomon were over there too. Gomamon's condition hadn't of gotten any better from before: he still had his forepaws stuck to the ground, there were slight streaks of the sticky goo over his back and, even more prominent, on his back was plastered the towel TK had used earlier to try and wipe the stuff off.

"Well. . .black isn't _that_ bad of a color for you, Goma", Yokomon said, for lack of a better comment.

"I knew was gon'na be trouble from the moment I saw it!" he exclaimed, trying to wobble free.

"That's the same thing I said when I first met you", Joe added-in as he turned-back. "You look like you could use a bottle of industrial strength 'Goo-Gone'." Gomamon was in a 'sticky' situation, he'll admit, but Palmon was much more worse at the moment and had to be attended to.

Behind him off-center to the room, Sora stood checking over her and Tentomon's work after they had suspecting that they finished setting everything up for the usual night. She looked about her in a complete circle and counted the tasks done on her fingers: "Okay. . .let's see: did we miss anything?"

"We've taken almost everything out of that bag except a washer and dryer set so we shouldn't of", Tentomon said.

"Let's make sure; just to be on the safe side", Sora said. She turned to the first item - a circle of stones and other nonflammable items and three long pipes and a few boxes around it - and started to list what they had done: "Campfire ring, check. . .Seats - enough for 14 people and Digimon, check."

"I just need **one** right now."

She turned past the two rows of unfurled sleeping bags around the ring. Actually, they weren't much more than just two sheets - a blanket and a cover - placed on top of one another; they had been miraculously rolled-up tight enough to be carried in Joe's bag and take-up almost no room at all. "Sleeping bags - 7, check. . .Food and water, check." She came about to a small pile of assorted food-stuffs and three thirty-six ounce bottles of water - each about a half full; that was what was left after the trek through the desert. "Hopefully enough for 14 people and Digimon", she added.

"I'd settle to eat for two right now", Tentomon commented after her again.

"There, I think that was all of it. Anything I forget to mention?"

"Tired arms for one thing", Tentomon said slumping to the floor and resting the tips of his claws against it - for all four hands. Sora looked down at the red-purple insect Digimon. "*groan* Check", he added.

Sora turned to the hearth area about the campfire ring - some rocks and small metal objects - and then quizzically looked at the empty center of the ring. What were they going to burn? She thought. "Joe, what are we going to use for campfire fodder? There aren't any logs or wood around here to use; and, nothing else looks flammable."

Joe placed the newly dampened rag on Palmon's stomach again and then stood, turning to face Sora. "I was just thinking the same thing, Sora. We don't have anything flammable left in my bag. . .that's perishable, I mean."

"Then what are we going to burn?" She looked-up at the ceiling light that gradually was decreasing in intensity and the light from the open door - the acid rain storm outside blaring away - was also dimming. "Tai was right on this one: there isn't really going to be any light by dark if we don't supply our own."

"Judging by the temperature of this metal floor", Tentomon said pushing himself up into a stand, "it's not going to get any warmer on its own either. I suggest we move the sleeping bags closer together tonight for extra warmth. It's either that or tomorrow one of us has to push the others out into the rain to thaw."

"You may have a point, Tentomon", Joe conceded. "And that would leave our light problem", Sora added although she could see Joe was going to get to that. What amazed her besides their thought synchronization at the moment was the fact that Joe had done everything up to now but panic and faint.

"I think I have that part covered, Sora", Joe said. He pushed his glasses up on his nose and turned around to face the others. Mimi had gone back to fanning Palmon and the other two were still where they last were standing. "Gomamon, would you bring. . .Oh." He stopped his request when he remembered and then noticed a stuck white and partially blackened seal with a towel stuck to his back scowl.

"Then. . .Yokomon, bring me the bottle with the 'tar' in it, please."

"Okay, Joe."

Sora, Joe and Gomamon all watched this time as Yokomon demonstrated how she carried things with the curl on her head, which literally uncurled and wrapped itself around the bottle before lifting it above the ground. The in-training Digimon bounced its way over to Joe and he kneeled down to take it from her. "Thank-you."

Sora watched as Joe turned and walked over to where the campfire shell was. He unscrewed the cap of the bottle and poured about six drops of the thick black liquid in the center. He stood and recapped the bottle. "Now does anyone here have a match-book on them? A lighter?" He turned to face Sora - approaching - who was shaking her head. He look beyond her to Mimi, who was also shaking her head.

"You mean that you don't carry even one in that bottomless pit you call a bag, Mimi?"

Mimi looked a scowl towards Gomamon but answered with a calm voice: "No, I don't see any reason to carry anything I don't really need." Gomamon's expression just said: this is coming from her?! "Why don't you have one, Boy Scout?" Mimi asked to Joe, looking away from the seal.

"I didn't think I'd ever need one neither. How about Tai, Matt or Izzy?"

"The only three things Tai has are his pocket telescope, those ridiculous goggles", Sora said, "and his hair but that's another story. Matt doesn't have anything like that on him. And, knowing Izzy, he probably has every piece of techno-gadgetry under the sun and not either of those things."

"Well, you're right on both accounts. . .", Tentomon said from behind.

"Tentomon, of course!" Joe said turning about quickly. "I almost forgot. Fire your attack at the drop of gunk I set into the center of the ring", Joe explained what he wanted the insect Digimon to do while pointing at the black blob. Tentomon opened his shell and took hover about two feet above the ring's edge.

"Okay. . .SUPER SHOCKER!" Tentomon fired a small version of his electrical attack at the gunk and, when it hit, the glob took kindle and started to burn. The flame was a bright red-orange which bathed through the slightly misty air about it. It was only a small fire but a great contrast to the rest of the room. "It caught fire!"

"No kidding. Put it out! Put it out!"

Joe was frantically brushing-off the cloth around his wrist which Tentomon had failed to miss with his attack; it too had caught fire. He continually brushed it off again and again for a few seconds until he finally decided to push it off his hand. The burnt cloth feel into the campfire ring with the burning 'tar'; Joe's hand wasn't really burnt any but he feel back nonetheless and sat at he blew on his hand. "Hot! Hot! Ooo, that stings."

"Joe, you got a fire going! What are you burning?" Mimi said, stopping at Joe's panic and looking over to where the glow was coming from. She sniffed at the air. Joe slowly sat-up holding his hand and said: "Oil. I remembered what you said about that gunk earlier."

"This is great Joe, now we've got something to use for light and heat!" Sora said as she leaned down to both keep Yokomon at a distance from the burning fire and to reinforce the 'fire-proof' ring.

"Yeah, but I'm not sure how long it'll last like this", Joe said as he came over to the fire, which was now showing signs of gradually decreasing intensity. "That's a bright, fast-burning fire. We may have to water-down the tar and oil stuff for optimum use before we burn anymore of it."

"Joe, should I move Palmon any further from the fire?" Mimi asked, stopping her fanning and placing her cowboy hat down on the floor. "No, just don't bring her any closer", Gomamon answered for his partner. "That heat isn't gon'na help her fever get better any."

"Hey, guys! Come over here!" TK called from his place leaning over the railing. Joe, Sora, Mimi and Tentomon came over in a few seconds and they all looked over at him.

"What is it, TK?" Mimi asked.

TK pointed out into the rest of the machine room at what looked like a specific area. "Do you see what I see?"

"There's a holiday song cue if ever I've heard one. . ." Mimi said idly.

"I don't know", Tentomon said as the others looked out into the room. "What should I see that you see?"

"If you're seeing what I'm seeing, you should see something moving through the room. Do you see it?"

"That's got ot be a record for the most number of 'sees' used in a single sentence."

"Enough already, you two. It's the others; they're coming back."

TK looked down at his wristwatch. "And at the right time too: another minute and we could've started worrying."

The five figures continued to climb there way over obstacles such as the conveyor belts and pipes in the room as they walked back towards the platform. Agumon and Gabumon were in the lead with Tai, Izzy and Matt following close behind. The mechanical arm path they had originally carved-out made the trip more direct and difficulty-free but they all looked cautious as if waiting for something to spring-out from anywhere. They approached the base of the platform and started climbing the stairs.

"Why did you two have land on me again?"

"I told you already, Iz: we over-shot the grating and had to fall-back."

"Fall back?" Matt asked. "As you put it: we simply took a wrong turn."

"I told you that last turn was supposed to be a left", Tai said as he placed his foot on the first step all the way back to Matt.

"And I still say I'm sure we took a right there", Matt answered back sourly.

"Would you two quit it?" Izzy said as he put his foot on the first step himself after Tai. "We're back and that's what's important."

"Let's hope our 'fearless leader' has a new plan of action then", Matt said.

At the top of the platform area, the five were greeted by Joe, Sora, Yokomon and Tentomon. Mimi was still by Palmon and Gomamon couldn't move anywhere at the moment (pity him). "Well, what did you guys find out there?" Sora was the first to speak-up.

"You guys look like you've been through a fire-fight", Joe said commenting on their disheveled attire.

"You. . .could say that, Joe. We found a restless locale by the name of Geardramon", Tai said. "Agumon and Gabumon took care of that floating crank-case, though."

"Digimon with a nasty disposition? Does that mean we should be on the move again?" Yokomon asked down at Sora's feet.

"Nah, I don't think anyone followed us. Anyway, I think he was just peeved that we invited ourselves in unannounced", Matt said.

"Well, it's not like we had a choice in the matter of stopping out here!" Mimi called over.

Joe, in a slightly nervous voice: "Still, now that we know that there are 'evil' Digimon here, we should either move camp or stay here and remain on-our-guards."

"Well, since I'm tired, I'm voting we all stay on-our-guards", Tentomon said. "Go ahead; don't bother waiting-up for me."

"And I still didn't find out what this factory makes. . .", Izzy said as he walked over besides Tentomon.

"Besides noise", Tentomon said.

"Anyway, we still have the necessities we should need if we're attacked:", Tai said as he pointed towards the open door with the wall of rain coming down outside it. "A partially-safe escape route incase of attack. . ."

"That's your idea of _safe_? Are you sure we can't vote again?" Matt said.

Ignoring Matt's remark, Tai turned his eyes and finger towards the small blaze in the center of the platform. He looked once but it took a second for the thing to get his correct surprised attention. ". . .and a fire for heat and light?! (pause as he walked up to the small blaze) Way to go, you guys! Who got the fire going?"

"Joe", Sora said and Tai turned to face her as she spoke. "He used some of the 'tar' from that fake oasis back there and set the oil in it on fire." She pointed her finger at the fire for emphasis.

"An oil lamp?" Izzy said leaning down towards the diminishing flame at the center of the ring. "I guess. . .that means that we'll have to water the concentration of tar/oil down for it to remain effective as long as possible?"

"I was hoping you knew how to do it, Izzy", Joe said, handing him the bottle. "I'm not sure how much I should water it down." Izzy regarded the bottle he took in his hand and stood-up. "How much of the solution is left?" "About thirty-two ounces", Joe said. "One ounce was spilt by Gomamon earlier. . ."

"So that's why he looks like he does", Gabumon said standing next to Gomamon.

"Funny, I always thought he looked like that, minus all that black gunk", Agumon said from the opposite side.

Gomamon switched views from one-side to the other and back again, acting kind'a nervous. He was hoping that the two wouldn't take the moment to get him back for all the tricks he's played on them both. "Hey, Goma, you have a towel stuck on your. . ." Gomamon quickly looked towards the speaker - Gabumon - and snapped: "Say it and I'll shave you bald."

". . .and the other ounces were used to demonstrate the fire", Joe finished.

"Okay, I'll see what I can do with it", Izzy said cautiously. He knew little about watering-down oil for slower burning besides the fact that oil and water clashed in solutions; that killed that idea completely. Perhaps he could use the consistency of it to make it burn slower. "Uh, maybe I can work-out some sort of primitive oil lamp using some of the debris around the room."

Tai slapped him on the back so hard, but as a friendly gesture, that Izzy almost fumbled the bottle. "Then let's get to it, Iz-miester." Izzy turned half-way and looked at him. "The faster we get a good-sized fire burning, the faster we can cook supper and eat: we're all dying of starvation." Tai was, of course, exaggerating that last part but then that was Tai's little way of urging on the 'work force'. 

At that moment the small fire dwindled and went out, throwing the room into its natural darkness.

"Well, here goes nothing then", Izzy said and then walked over to one-side of the room with the bottle to look for parts he thought useful. He really had no clue how to make even a simple oil lamp but was going to give it his best try.

"Good, and after we figure the fire out, Mimi and I will start cooking supper", Sora said starting to sort through the foods she had put-out to one-side.

TK and Mimi had moved over to the door at the moment. The two usual rays of sun-shine for the group had dulled to light-bulbs - Mimi to only a candle's worth actually - and were looking at the storm still raging outside. Lightning and thunder and rain as far as the eye could see the dark clouds high above their heads.

TK picked-up a small bolt that was probably from the wrecked door and threw it out onto the sand, into the rain. The bolt glistened in the rain for a moment and then started to hiss, releasing a slight fume.

"Still aciding."

"It's still raining? When will this dumb storm pass already!"

"I hope by sometime tomorrow. Then we can start-off for Myotismon's castle again. Gennai said we have bigger problems to deal with, remember?" TK asked Mimi.

"For once, I'd almost wish someone else would take over trying to save this world", Mimi said. "I mean, what did I do to deserve this? I'm just a city-girl who's not the best person for the job. . ." She (and the others) failed to notice her Crest slightly flicker at this but it quickly went out as she stopped; she reached around her neck and pulled her Crest out, dangling it in front of her face. "For that matter, not the best at being sincere anyway."

"Aw, com'mon, Mimi. I know a bunch of people who less sincere than you", TK said. "I know you're perfect for the job if you'd only believe in yourself. (pause) Look at Patamon here." He said pointing at his hat; the small orange Digimon's ears pricked at the owner's name being called.

"Yeah?"

"When I was in danger, Patamon knew he had to protect me against that evil Devimon guy. He tried with all his might - which at this form wasn't enough - but with enough bravery look at what he was able to become: a shining guardian-angel which protected us all and got rid of Devimon." Patamon's ears lowered when the short story was over and TK pointed to Mimi now, who was putting her Crest back under her collar. "That could be you, Mimi. With enough courage you could be sincere enough to get your Crest to work and then you could probably become an angel of some sort who's able to protect anyone you'd hope to."

"I once thought I had gotten my Crest working. . .", Mimi mumbled leaning against the doorframe. She was referring to the incident back at the Geckomon Palace again. She had just woken up from what she could best figure as a dream - or an omen - from Sora and her Crest looked to be glowing. . .probably just in the moon-light though, much to her dismay. She had changed her way-of-mind a lot ever since then. She was still the same incoherent Mimi in ways but she seemed to be more mature in some others. She suddenly stood straight and threw her hand in front of her in a 'no problem' gesture. "But if you say so, TK, then I'm gon'na try to be the most sincere I can be. I'm gon'na try the best that I. . .Ow!"

Mimi has banged her hand against the door-pane by accident and had taken her glove to look at her hurting right hand. "Oh, darn it!"

"What is it, Mimi? You okay?"

"I broke another nail."

Matt looked over at her when she said this. He was probably the only one in the room listening to her besides TK. Mimi. . .trying to be sincere?, he thought. This may take a while. 

That was common of the group: a broken nail from Mimi but no one else cared to listen except him. He wished he could inspire the same sort of confidence in Mimi with what he said like TK could to whoever he was talking to. If he could do that then he could do what he wanted to do: ask her out. Well, it would all make the difference if they weren't in the Digital World but then he'd at least know he could ask her. Little did Matt know though that one other person in the room was also listening to everything Mimi had said, had been listening to her secretly ever since he first met her, and was thinking the same. . .

Joe was back over by Palmon with Tai acting as nurse now along with Yokomon. The cloth on Palmon's forehead was being soaked again in a stray bottle of water that had almost run-out by Tai. Joe checked her temperature again, checking for change. Her fever was still in full swing.

"How much food and water do we have left anyway?" Tai asked.

"I'm not sure. I've just been using water from one bottle and it's almost empty", Joe removed his hand and regarded the heat he just felt. "Well, no change yet. I'm hoping her fever breaks soon."

Tai handed him back the newly wetted rag. "I'll check our rations later. We need to know what we have left and for how long we can hold-out."

"Well, I'm glad we all have a plan of action", Gomamon said off to the side of Tai. "But now, if it isn't too much trouble to ask (deep breath and then right into Tai's and Joe's ears). . .WOULD SOMEONE GET THIS GUNK OFF ME!?!"

******* 

The blue and gray Digimon was hovering above its swivel chair. From a bowling-ball head, two large wings sprung in place of hands and the claws at the base of its fur-covered legs were red, acting as the 'hands' of the creature. The black smoothened portion of its round face fit neatly over its eyes and mouth like a mask of some sort with its two blue eyes (covered in thin reading glasses) menacingly looking at the paper on the desk before it, pen in its right claw.

The desk of the room wasn't as much a desk as it was a control panel of some sort. In the center, next to where the seat was, there was an ink-blotter and pens and quills to use but the rest of the desk was dominated by controls, knobs switches and buttons in rows. An oscilloscope screen flickered green to one-side, seven rows of sliding levers to another. All that was amongst other controls built into the desk, plus a keyboard on the roll-out platform of the desk to the Digimon's right. Three screen's showing various parts of the factory flanked the opposite side of the desk.

The Digimon had to fly because it couldn't balance on one leg. It finished looking over the report on its desk area, smirked and then reached down to sign on the dotted-line that came at the end. A big red _X _seemed to give the paper more importance than the actual parchment was worth, it thought. With the free claw, he picked the paper up and placed in on a stack of papers to one-side that said _Out_. It picked-up the next sheet from a pile that said _In_ and started to look it over, pushing-up its glasses with the tip of the pen. Unlike the first sheet, the facts that were written in Digi-code on this one made him frown. He dropped the pen and used both claws to crumble-up the sheet. With a toss it flew across the room and into a nearly empty waste-paper basket.

"Darn it! I hate it when I get junk mail!" he commented as the paper landed in the basket and settled there. A buzz coming from the door got his attention and he let his glasses drop to the tip of his nose again. The Digimon landed within it's high swivel executive-chair and faced the door completely. 

Another buzz. 

"Well, come in! What do you want: a valet?!"

The door slid open upwards and the silver form of a Mekanorimon stepped through the door, clanging its feet against a metal floor that was covered in red velvet. Something was in its hand but its massive fingers hid it. The machine lumbered-up to the first Digimon's desk and stopped there.

"Mekanorimon number 16, having made reconnaissance to Sector D15, reporting."

"What took you?"

"I was held-up in the trafficking Geardramon passage of Intersector I17."

There was an awkward pause.

The Digimon in the chair used the claw on the tip of its wing to remove the glasses from its face. "Very well, number 16. Out with it."

"Sector D15 had not been severely damaged: a lost Geardramon unit - number 44, a flight of stairs and a ladder and one wall-mounted ionic discharge impulsor", the Mekanorimon answered the creature in the seat, it's one eye not straying about the room until he was finished with that first part. The walls were a pale color with borders about the ceiling and the floor. After that, shadow's over-took the corners of the small place. "Given the premise to the hypothesis, we may have an intruder, Demimon."

The Digimon in the seat threw down his glasses to the blotter. "Of course we have an intruder, you lug-nut! Your protocol must be off by more than just one gear, number 16!" He jumped-up to the desk-top for a moment to add emphasis. "And the name is now and forever more Demidevimon, you lout! Get that through your thick Digizoit alloy already!"

"Impossible request", the Mekanorimon droned. "Chrome Digizoit is an impenetrable form of titanium steel and chromium. It has never been. . ."

"Ugh! Shut-up with the political correctness or I'll take that pen there and show you what happens to Mekanorimon who have only one eye and make someone like me mad!"

"All Mekanorimon units have one eye."

"Then that'd be pity for them! We have more than enough pens!" Demidevimon said as he hopped back into his chair and turned-back to face the machine Digimon. The machine got the drift and clanked a slight step backwards. "I'd get rid of you if we weren't already on a time-restriction budget here, ya'know! Myotismon wants an army to take with him to Earth and that's what I aim to give him! Let's see Gatomon try and top genius like this; even she'll be impressed." 

He pause and flapped his wing aside, solely looking at a picture he had in a blackened locket with a picture of the Digimon known as Gatomon. He then added aside, "I hope she will."

"Digression disregarded. Awaiting further orders", the Mekanorimon chimed-in finally what it's sub-conscious was thinking. Okay, so Digimon will admit that the Mekanorimon isn't the smartest Digimon in the DigiWorld but it was one of the most reliable. . .at times. Demidevimon returned the locket to its hiding spot.

"And while we're on that colorful subject, number 16, did you at least remember to bring that gear with you from Sector D15?"

As in reply, the Mekanorimon reached-up with one of its immense metal claws and stretched it out over the blotter section of the desk. When the its 'palm' was over the paper, it released its thumb and a round object fell out of its hand and settled onto the desk. When the hand was withdrawn again, the shadow left the object and revealed that it was an obsidian gear about one foot in diameter.

"Ah, good, you actually did something right", Demidevimon said as he took hover again and opened the middle drawer on his desk. He took out a screwdriver and a pair of pliers before closing the drawer again. "I always love souvenirs!" He moved over to the edge of the gear, staying in the air.

With the screwdriver's tip he flicked open a hinged panel of metal that was nearly inconspicuous and began to fiddle inside of the gear with the pliers and the driver. Two multi-color wires and a green circuit board were visible through the hole as Demidevimon tinkered about with the device's insides. A few whirls and some clicks followed. Demidevimon closed one eye as if a bird, using his one open eye to focus better on his objective, as if this was a bomb he was de-arming and the entire base was on his shoulders. After a few seconds, a digital beep and click followed by a blinking glow coming from the inside of the open panel indicated that the electronics were working on their own again. He removed his tools from the gear, flicked the panel closed again and placed the screwdriver and pliers down on the desk.

"There. It should be okay now", Demidevimon said as he flew over to a bunch of switches on one of the desk consoles aside him, next to the oscilloscope's screen which showed a blank line at the moment. After he flicked a red lever and then raised some of the sliding levers half-way the oscilloscope's white line started to undulated rapidly and erratically. The gear on the desk began to shake and then started spinning, slowly rising into mid-air above the desk on its own power. A strange, low engine whine was audible from the gear.

"Now get along, you! And don't get into anymore trouble", Demidevimon said, almost as if he were speaking to the inanimate but active gear hovering before him. His red claw flicked another red lever down sub-consciously and the gear slowly flew its way around the Mekanorimon and out the sliding door. "And don't take it anywhere over twenty RPS, will ya?!"

As the gear went through the door and away from the room, off on some unknown task and route, the engine whine vanished.

"Well, that's one less headache. . ."

"Awaiting further orders."

". . .Leaving me with an even bigger one. You're getting to become a broken record, you know that?"

"Observation acknowledged and affirmed, Demimon."

"DEMIDEVIMON!"

"Correction noted, Demimon."

"Oye. This is going to be one of those days, isn't it?" the furry creature said as he flew back over to his chair, although he didn't land. "I would've never started building you guys if I knew you end-up so brainless. Okay then, you want some orders? Fine by me. Let me see a print-out on one of those three foreign DNA signatures you found in the service duct at Sector D15."

"Affirmative. Task completion cycle in fifteen point five clicks", the machine replied simply as the sound of a printer was heard and a slot somewhere from on the side of the Mekanorimon's left 'hand' started to print out a mass of white paper with some writing on it. As it came out from his wrist area, Demidevimon took the end of it with one claw and grabbed his glasses from the desk with the other.

"Let's see if we can confirm what we have here", Demidevimon said as he lifted the paper with one hand to his face and put his glasses on with the other; once his other hand was free, he used to hands to inch the long paper along as it continued to print-out. The entire sheet was composed of combinations of three groups of four letters - T, G, C, A - that seemed to go on and on without end. 

This is a mighty fine waste of resources for a budget like ours, Demidevimon thought, but if this is who I hope it isn't, we need to know for sure.

Demidevimon scrolled the sheet along with his claws as it continued to pour out of the Mekanorimon's printer slot. "Hm. . .yes. . .yes. . .deoxyribonucleic sequencing. . .double-helix composition. . .yes. . .", he prattled on to himself, reading aloud what the paper told him about the DNA of the subjects that had been scanned. He wasn't even that far through the long sheet - which was still not even close to being finished - when his eyes narrowed and he gritted his teeth. 

"Oh darn: it **is** them! Cancel printing! Cancel!"

Demidevimon dropped his end of the sheet to the floor as it snaked over the rug before settling. The end of the paper that was still attached to the Mekanorimon's arm was cut by an internal mechanism and it fell to the floor too. Once again, the bowling ball-shaped Digimon threw his glasses off and then he opened the drawer to his left. He pulled out what appeared to be a crudely constructed remote control about two inches thick and a foot by eight inches wide - it looked much like some weird toy car remote. Two analog joysticks dominated either half of the remote, spaced by an off-center round oscilloscope screen and two antennae on top. Various buttons and switches covered other parts of the dark gray-black surface. It wasn't that heavy which was why he could carry it so easily.

"Come'mon tall, silver and gruesome. We got a job to do", Demidevimon said as he held the controller with one hand and pressed a red button with the other. In a shadowy corner of the room next to the desk, two red lights began to glow as pupils and a synthesized but human-like groaning started. A clank of metal foot-steps and out from the shadows stepped an Andromon. It's literal skull-cap came down over it's face like a mask and the blending of its machine and organic limbs would make one suspect it a cyborg rather than an android-based Digimon. Demidevimon flew around the Mekanorimon towards the door as the Andromon followed behind him.

"Coming, Demidevimon", the Andromon spoke in an even more-so lethargic voice than the Mekanorimon; but, at the moment, it was speaking that way for a reason.

Demidevimon turned about just as the Mekanorimon did too and they were now looking at each other. "There, you see, someone around here can get my name right! Andromon may not be the smartest underling I have to use around here and he is employed for his muscle-power and not his brain-power but at least he can get THAT right."

"Awaiting further orders."

"You say that one more time and I'm gon'na recycle you so well, they won't know how much toast to put in if they DO reconstruct you!" Demidevimon moved to one-side as the bulky form of Andromon stepped-by through the door-pane. "Okay, here's your orders, so shut-up so I can tell 'em to ya! I want you to inform all the other Geardramon and Mekanorimon of our intruders but tell them to go about their business as if nothing were wrong: we don't want to attract any unwanted attention to the search. In the meantime, run this entire factory over with an ultrasonic scan starting from the 'Z' sectors and going down; call me if anything turns-up."

"Affirmative. Complying. . ." The Mekanorimon began to turn about and started-over towards one of the walls where a metal panel was built-into it - another round screen flickered red off-center of two rows of three holes.

"And while all that's happening, me and Andromon here will do our own searching. Don't make me repeat that", the flying Digimon finally finished. He turned to his right, the way the Andromon turned, and quickly followed, calling with an exasperated voice: "Hey! Wrong way, genius! Other way!"

As the sliding door closed with a 'swoosh', the Mekanorimon approached and squarely faced the panel he had been walking-up to.

And now he is gone, the Mekanorimon thought. Slave configuration. . .

The spike-like fingers on his two hands began to extend themselves and snake their way in an upwards arc. At their ends, they locked into each of the holes in the panel with a 'clong' and an electrical discharge. The red light began to flash in second intervals and a mechanical voice that was solely digital and mechanical hummed: 

"Data upload complete. . .Transmitting data to all receptive units. . ."

******* 

"Salad with peanut butter and jelly!"

"Aw, that's nothing, kid: mayonnaise and jam."

"Raisins and grapefruit mix."

"Come on, Sora, that's the best you can think of?"

"Hey, I'm trying to eat for once without having to repeat myself later out of hunger."

"Well, if things keep up at this rate, things'll get messy anyway."

It was another fun Digi-destined game of "Guess the Worst Food". The objective was to take turns calling out gross toppings, sides, alterations, etc. of a selected food-product until the others can't top it or get sick. Whichever came first, anyway. Tonight's choice entree was: salad.

The Digi-destined and their Digimon were sitting in two almost perfect half-circles about the campfire ring on the three moved-over pipes - the owner and then their Digimon aside them. Tai and Sora were on one, Matt and TK on another, and Mimi Izzy and Joe occupied the last. Supper was assorted fruits and some fire-cooked vegetables and it was also being eaten as the group played their verbal game, which made it all the harder. At the center of the campfire ring there was a new object: it was a primitive oil lamp Izzy had managed to rig-up using a cupped-shell as a holding area, a funnel and some thick rope. Once the rope was saturated in the oil and then set on-fire, it continued to burn the oil - drawing it up the strands of the rope - at a much slower pace. Palmon was still out-like-a-light but her fever had lowered slightly. Gomamon had been cleaned off finally although he still commented on feeling 'sticky'.

"Okay then", Sora said, calling his bluff. "How about 'onions and garlic'?"

"Hm. . .getting there", Tai said without any emotion in his voice. He was followed-up by being hit over the forehead with the good-sized purple fruit that Sora was eating.

"Mustard and sauerkraut", Matt said chewing on a part of some orange fruit. Although none of what they were eating right now was Earthly, Izzy was able to confirm long ago that it was all safe with the proper cooking. There were still a few pieces suspended on propped sticks over the flame of the 'lamp'.

"Sour-who?" Agumon asked.

"Sauerkraut. . .not spelt as it sounds", Matt said, moving his food away from his mouth and swallowing before he continued. "It's American; America is a continent from where we come from. It goes with food known as the hot-dog."

"They eat 'dogs' where you come from?" Gabumon asked. Even though he was wolf, 'canine' was enough to get him surprised. Matt looked over at him: "Uh. . .it's not that way. Just a name."

"Could we please get on with the game?" Izzy asked. "And try to choose foods that don't go with each other. Egg salad with cream cheese."

Joe: "Chili and french fries."

Tai: "Sardine salad." That got Gomamon's attention - from across the fire - and Tai got another vegetable to the brain-pan. He flinched before this one landed.

"Broccoli", came from TK. "Mmm…I haven't had any in a long time", Sora commented which got a few glances from the rest of Digi-destined. She easily saw them as they weren't trying to hide it and added, "What? I grew-up eating that." TK: "I never liked the taste of it. Muh Mom made me eat it." And Matt took a big bite out of his fruit, "Yep. That sure sounds like mom."

"Okay, let's continue. Beandip salad", Sora said.

"A`la carte salad", Tai said. "Tai", Izzy said, "that just means salad." Tai shifted in his seat and then put down the stem of the cooked fruit he finished eating as he took another. "Oh well, I tried."

" 'Whatever this green thing is' salad!" Mimi said, putting down a barely once-bit green vegetable about the size of a CD case with a scrunched-up face. It was either sour or disgusting the others figured.

"Mimi, that's not a valid answer; you have to name a specific food", Izzy said. Although he didn't really understand the game he was appointed to play as well as act as 'referee'.

"Well, I can't: I think of anymore food and some of it will come-up! From me, I mean!" Mimi started. "Do you know how long it'll take those stains to come out without proper care!? And that's without considering the smell. . ."

"Mimi, if you gross-us all out beforehand the game'll be ruined", TK said.

"Not to mention the floors", Tentomon added.

"Sora", a curled Biyomon looked-up from her piece of fruit that she was eating, "Why you play this every week?"

Sora moved her piece of vegetable from her mouth before she took a bite. "Because, we need something to do over dinner. It seems like all during the day we talk about what we're going to do on a normal basis so we might as well talk-about something else now."

Patamon looks over at Sora and then said, "I think Biyomon meant 'why do you HAVE to play this game while you eat?' "

Sora, motioning to Tai with her fruit-holding hand: "Ask Tai. He's the one who brought the idea up back on Vile Island."

"I only commented back there how I hadn't anything to go with those eggs and then. . .oh, just skip it", Tai started but then just dropped the entire idea. He reached-down to a bottle at his side and took a slip of the water in it. Joe looked-up with a full mouth, "Be careful, that's much of all we have left."

Tai: "How much supplies DO we have left anyway?"

Izzy swallowed his chewed food in a gulp. "We have enough food to last us one day, two meals only."

"And the water?"

"One more meal at a usual rate."

"How about the tar substance? What about that?" Matt called.

"Tonight and then we're - as they call it - 'just burning fumes'."

"Darn it!" Tai said, holding his food by the stem and punching his fists together. He mumbled, "One day's worth. . .(pause and then aloud) How long can a person go without food and water?"

Joe looked-up from his fruit - which he was eating like corn-on-the-cob - and said, "Usually for food: a week if they don't push-it - which we do everyday - but a person can't go without water for over four days." "And besides", Izzy began again, "This storm out there doesn't look to be letting-up anytime tonight or tomorrow."

Everyone looked down at the dancing flame were a bleak complexion. It wasn't any less than human to admit one's own weaknesses but it was down-hearting. The entire answer was simple: there's not enough supplies to hold-out nor reach the castle on.

"I don't like this", TK mumbled although in this silence everyone heard him clearly.

"Okay, now I see why you guys play this game", Gabumon said. "To try and get your mind off of stuff like this which would would rather not want to worry about."

"We'll have to sometime", Matt said.

"But, still, try skipping it for now. Please continue your game so we don't have to see you so sad", Agumon said turning to Tai.

"It won't bother you guys? We do get pretty disgusting at times", Tai said. He wasn't even sure if he that came-out in a good way or bad way. Mimi's "I resent that!" filled part of his suspicions. "Well. . .yes it does at times, but we'd rather see you all having a good time as opposed to moping about", Gabumon answered.

"Besides, there's not much else to do so we might as well all get sick", Tentomon said. Everyone looked at him with a scowl; Tentomon just slumped stomach-first to the ground. "Okay, I'll be quiet now."

"Okay then", Tai said starting to chew on his fruit again. "Let's continue from where we left off. Who's turn was it?"

"Mimi's."

"Okay, Mimi, give us your worst!" Matt said pointing the stalk of what was once an orange fruit at her.

Mimi looked down and away. "No, no thank-you. My heart's just not in it anymore."

Gomamon: "Well if you keep listening, your gut won't stay in either."

Tai put down the stem of what was originally his supper and lean-down closer to the fire, "Mimi, if you don't really want to go, you can be given a technical stand-out. You don't have to play if you don't want to continue." It sounded sympathetic; Tai could see however that Mimi was once again paying a bit more attention to Palmon than his line.

"No, it's okay. I'll continue", Mimi said turning back to the general assembly in the room.

"Okay then. How disgusting CAN the Mim-ster get?" Tai said leaning back again.

"I still resent that", Mimi said. Tai got conked over the head for the third time tonight by fruit. She then put on a sneaky smile. "Alright people, escargot salad with caviar - raw!" She put as much emphasis as she could muster on the last word.

At that, what everyone least suspected from a vegetarian, the entire group turned the same kelly green as Palmon had. To the Digi-destined that had to be the worst thing that had been introduced since the game had been invented. It was gross enough for everyone without it being 'raw'. Slowly Tai started to put his piece of fruit down.

Tai looked-up with a sickly smile on his face: "Mimi, that's disgusting! Heh heh? (pause) Well, I'm out."

Sora put her piece down. "Me too."

"Although it may come as absolutely no surprise: ditto here", Joe said as he too put his food down on the floor. "I don't even think that's healthy."

"I fold." Matt said as he tossed his food to Gabumon, who had just finished his old piece and eagerly took the new one. None of the Digimon had a clue what Mimi had just said.

Izzy just sat there in his sickly stare, mouth gaped. The food dropped out of his now-limp hand and landed, spearing through one of the spikes on Tentomon's shell. (Tentomon: "Oo. . .table scraps. Now all we need is a table for them to fall from.") No arguments: he was out.

"That's pretty gross; but, I'm still 'in' ", TK said as he was the only one still holding onto his piece of fruit, which acted as a sort of gamepiece.

Gomamon pulled Joe down to whisper's reach: "What's escargot? What's caviar?" Joe looked at the white seal. "Well, caviar is. . ." he said, but whispered the rest into Gomamon's ear for some reason. When Gomamon heard he jumped back and yelled, "WHAT!?!?!?!" The seal reached down for his blue fruit quickly and was about to take a swing right at Mimi's nose with it; he would've hit too if Joe hadn't of quickly held-back his arm and pulled the fruit clear.

Mimi looked over at TK - the only remaining player of the game - and smiled wryly. Everyone knew that she had something in mind. "Okay then, TK: escargot salad with caviar AND broccoli - raw."

"Broccoli!?" everyone asked at once in disbelief.

TK just sat there for a second with all eyes on him, Mimi smiling. He shifted in his seat and slowly put his fruit down as he rolled his eyes uneasily; he was beat. "You win", he said simply and quickly. 

The group broke into an up-roar of laughter.

Sora stopped laughing long enough to say, "I here-by declare Mimi the winner! And. . .it looks as if the mushrooms are done!" Her eyes rolled over to look at the food on the propped stick near her. She reached out, grabbed it by the base and lifted it out of the flames way. The mushrooms were charred and blackened.

"You're really packing what little food we have into us lately, Sora", Tai commented sounding a bit quesy.

"Just making sure everyone has the best nutrition they can get", she said simply. "Mushrooms anyone?"

And the reply came in unison: "I'll pass!"

******* 

About an hour-and-a-half later. . .in Digital time at least. Barely a second would've passed in normal time. 

Tai sat there in front of the oil-lamp fire on his watch for the night. Matt, TK, Joe and Mimi had turned in for the night about all of those one-and-a-half hours ago; they were resting in their sleeping bags-like sheets. The Digimon too. The campfire cast dancing shadows over the walls of the room as its flame flickered back and forth. Sora was over watching Palmon now because Mimi was too tired to stay awake any further, although she still stayed where she was along the wall. The green plant's fever had broken but she was still unconscious.

Tai looked over at Izzy, who was sitting along the front door's wall three-to-four meters away. He had his laptop hooked-up to the panel which originally controlled the hydraulics of the door and was feverishly clacking away, trying to 'by-pass front-line defenses and access the main CPU' whatever that meant to him. Izzy said it was a complex code and so for Tai to be spared the torture of having it explained to him, he nodded and went along.

He can get as boring as that American vice-president, Tai thought and an audible yawn accompanied it, but I really wouldn't know what we'd do without him at times.

Tai turned back around to the fire and rubbed his eyes. The reason he had been up and alert for the past ninety minutes was because it was Izzy's first watch and everyone was worried that he was too much into that computer to stay alert. So, Tai was sitting out both Izzy's and his own turns; he was half-way through his own but this entire thing threw his internal clock off. Right now it was trying to force him into 'sleep mode'.

Tai looked back over to Izzy. 

Man, how does that guy do it? Tai thought. How the heck does he manage to stay awake for so long but he can go to sleep and wake-up like he's had a full night's sleep even after only three hours!?

Tai turned back again to face the warm fire and rubbed his eyes yet again. He tried to hold back a yawn but it got the better of him. He was getting very tired already and didn't know how longer how could fight the urge to sleep. He hoped to finish out his watch first and then let Matt. . .

Sora was still watching the sleeping Palmon propped-up against the wall as Mimi had asked earlier. Mimi - on the opposite side of Palmon - was also asleep, her legs pulled to her chest and her arms about her bent legs.

Sora had been sitting there for a bit now just watching Palmon but thinking about other matters. Mainly, those 'other matters' were the acquisition of her Crest and. . .feelings. Ever since her Crest could glow again, Sora's emotions seemed to be more freed-up. For so long before then, she had thought it impossible for her to love anything - seeing her relationship to even her mother as she thought it - but now that she thought of it in a new light she didn't know what she was really aiming at.

She ran it over in her head thousands of times and came-up with the same answers which didn't help. Ever since she's opened-up about her mother, she's been having different feelings when among boys than girls; heck, looking at herself she admitted that someone would probably have a time drawing a line defining the genders. The problem was that she didn't understand any of it: in the company of boys, at first she'd have some weird urge and then the next moment she wouldn't have half-a-clue what she was doing that first moment. Was this love and is supposed to really be this confusing?

Oh, I have no clue about this at this point, she thought sharply and crossed her arms in a plop. She then winced and then slowly uncrossed them, looking down with pain-squinting eyes at the bandage about her arm. Note to self: Self, do not do that again until this heals completely.

When she fully opened her eyes again she looked down at the bandage and turned her arm over once and then back as if studying it.

She figured at this point that if she were having this much trouble trying to figure these feelings out then maybe she should try figuring them out by understanding why she felt them. Specifically, figuring out why she felt them for who they were present for the strongest. It was just after Flymon's stinger attack that Sora first sensed the most powerful of the feelings towards the person who was trying to help her, but pain was over-powering even it at the moment. 

She turned her head towards the fire. His constantly is the strongest so I'll go to 'see'. . .

Tai was still sitting there although it was now apparent by his lowered head and the way his body slightly rocking to and fro that he had succumbed to sleep. He was still sitting-up though and looked like he was meticulously balanced by some unseen force.

Sora stood and walked-over towards Tai, picking-up a spare blanket as she passed and then sat down besides him on the pipe. She studied his face: shadows danced over it, cast from his own features. She smiled as he looked to be mumbling something as he slept - but he really wasn't even saying anything - and she leaned-over to drape the blanket she had brought with her over his shoulders. The fire was slowly dying-out and he'd need warmth if he stayed this way.

For someone who usually slept like a log once he did go to sleep though, Tai slowly stirred awake when the blanket settled on his shoulders. His face twitched then his eyes slowly blinked a few times before opening as far as they would. She didn't notice as she was trying to balance the blanket over both his shoulders and was having a time. She found that the other shoulder was giving her trouble so she reached about his head from either side to balance it. He slowly lifted his head to face her.

His eyes were still watery as if he hadn't fully woken-up or understood what was going-on about him; they seemed to glisten in the fire's glow. Sora had just gotten another of those 'urges'; as their faces aligned something forced her to bring their faces closer and closer until. . .

Until. . .

"Uh. . .what? Sora?" Tai had finally woken-up enough to comprehend his surroundings and just barely saw Sora's face coming closer to his. Her second instinct - self-questioning - kicked-in and Sora pulled her arms back from around Tai's neck (letting go of the blanket on the other-side) and moved away quickly, slightly blushing although one probably wouldn't be able to tell from the fire's glow.

"You. . .uh, nodded-off while on watch", she replied.

"Huh? Oh", he said and then covered his mouth from another small yawn. Lifting his hand to his face however, he felt the extra weight and noticed the blanket. It was not very bulky and was a shade of blue.

"The fire's not heating anything as well as it did a little while ago so I decided that you might need a blanket for later", she said simply again, explaining the blanket.

"Oh, thanks. (lower) Mm. . .nice dream", Tai said although Sora clearly heard the part that he said in a lower voice. "Don't worry; I'm awake now. How much longer until the end of this watch?"

"Your watch? If you stay awake until then, you mean."

"Really. I'm fully. . .fully. . .", his head was once again drooping forward as he stuttered on that one word. Sora elbowed him in the arm and he snapped back-up. ". . .fully alert." His eyes were squinting still as if they were forcing themselves to stay open.

"Oh, that I'm sure of."

"No, really. I'm 'up-and-at`em', as they say."

"As who says?"

There was a brief pause. 

"The people who. . .say 'up-and-at`em', that's who." And then he followed that-up with a weak but delusional smile. Sora couldn't tell at this point if that was Tai's humor or his tiredness speaking. She just sat there for second looking at Tai, studying him, and then smiling herself. She shook her head back and forth a few times towards the ground and then helped the blanket-clad Tai to his feet.

"Com'mon, I'll help you to your bag."

"What? Sora, I am going to finish this watch if it takes me all night to do it."

Sora rolled her eyes; she figured about now that it was his tiredness speaking - not even Tai joked that bad. She pulled him to his feet, as wobbly as they were under his weight, and then slowly led him over to where the others who were sleeping were, along the right wall of the room. Actually, she more-so guided: all she really needed to do was start him walking and then make-sure he kept in the same direction. She also had to watch so he didn't step on anyone along the way.

Sora put one arm around his waist for support - a position which she liked - with the other hand on his chest because he looked as if he'd topple forward at any moment. Tai unconsciously shuffled his feet as he walked.

"No, seriously. I'm gon'na finish my post."

Sora almost didn't catch that last part as it was fighting for breathing space with a yawn and they sort of came-out at the same time. "You've already done your post. And half of another."

"Then I'll finish another."

Sora moved Tai around Joe and Gomamon's sleeping forms towards his 'sleeping bag'. Much to his complaining, but to his cooperation, Sora positioned his legs under the top sheet and finally got him into a sitting position. He was so tired that he didn't even know what he was doing and was saying otherwise.

Talk about being tired. . ., Sora thought. She placed the rim of the top sheets in Tai's nearly-limp hand. "Okay, now get some rest."

He repeated in a sleepy voice, "I told you I wasn't tired."

"Go to sleep!" For Sora, this felt like she had a child of her own.

"No, really, I don't want to. . .to. . .", he started but then stopped half-way as he started to fall forward but caught himself and pushed back. "Aw, what the heck am I kidding; you win." As he said that he plopped his head down on the bunched-up 'pillow' section of the bottom sheet and rolled over to one-side. His eyes immediately closed and he looked out like a light. Sora was surprised; she didn't think that was really possible. She decided to get-up without disturbing him.

"G'night, Kari."

Kari?, Sora stopped herself as she was getting-up to let him sleep. Who's Kari? She paused for a second and then remembered, Oh yeah: Tai's sister - Hikari. Nice girl, met her once. Guess he just thought he was back home.

Sora stood, turned about and then walked back to the pipe that Tai was previously sitting on. She sat back down and stared at the crackling flames of the oil lamp before him and resumed blushing by thinking about just before. She had confirmed her suspicions that Tai was the one whom she felt something greatly for but she also knew that she was too nervous and second-minded when it came to doing anything about it for some reason. She should've gone for the kiss, she figured.

"That was embarrassing", she added quietly.

"What was embarrassing?" a voice commented quietly after her. She was mildly startled as she turned around to face the red-haired Izzy who was clacking away at his computer near the door. The clacking was a sound that she almost got so used to in the past few seconds, it was like it wasn't there anymore; either that, or the rain was getting louder.

"Nothing. Nothing really", Sora whispered back over the room. She figured Izzy hadn't been paying attention. "Tai's gone to sleep; I'm taking his post and mine. How'r you doing?"

Izzy continued typing, not looking away from the screen. "Pretty good. This is a very complex code but I've almost got the basics of it down", he answered in another whisper.

"One second. Let me come over there: we're both going to lose our voices whispering like this."

Sora turned back around and grabbed the end of the rod she had been using earlier to cook the mushrooms. She dabbed the end of it as much as possible into the black substance in the basin of the lamp and then put the tip in the fire until it started to burn. It wouldn't stay lit for long but it was adequate. With the home-made torch in hand she stood and walked her over to where Izzy was sitting.

She sat-down next to Izzy and looked at the screen. Izzy was typing in letters, numbers and symbols in no noticeable sequences and a bunch of spaces along the edges of the window changed rapidly from 0s to 1s and then back again without sequence either. 

"Hi."

"Ev`ning", Izzy said, not taking his eyes off his work.

"Uh. . .how'd you say you were coming along?" Sora asked trying to start a conversation.

"Fine. This code is much more complex than the Digital jargon we've come across thus far. It looks to run a lateral format which means I have to work on adjacent heiratic banks at the same time to solve part of a first sequence."

"Uh. . .so where does that put you?"

Izzy sighed and then mumbled even too low for Sora to hear, "In a group of the over-worked and under-appreciated."

Sora moved the torch's flame closer to highlight the keyboard and the screen better.

"Don't bother", Izzy said politely. "I can see the screen fine."

"You're gon'na ruin your eyes if you keep this up."

"Haven't yet."

"Besides, how are you going to make out what you're typing if you can see the keys?"

"There's a placement known as 'home space'. Very good typists learn where to keep their fingers, the orientation of the keys and they don't need to look down at the letters as they type."

"You could pass for a great pianist."

Izzy stopped for a second and for the first time Sora could see the green-blinking cursor on the screen. He turned to look at Sora, taking his eyes and keys off the keys for the first time since they turned-in for the night. "Well, I do play the piano, but I don't really practice that much. Something my parents managed to talk me into doing on my spare time."

"What do you play?"

"Some Bac. Mostly Beethoven though."

"Any of your own compositions?"

Izzy paused. "Well, no. I told you I just play the piano on my spare time."

"Spare time? What spare time?" Sora plainly asked.

Izzy looked hurt. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well, every-time any of us see you, you're on that beeping machine right there." She pointed at the laptop with her free hand.

Izzy held his 'hurt' expression, turned back towards the keyboard and screen and started typing away again. He snapped quietly, "We all DO have things which we like to do better than other things, Sora."

"Well, sor-rey for bringing it up. You don't have to get rude", Sora said.

"Neither do you."

Sora straightened-up at that. She was getting tired too and really didn't need to get angry at the moment; burning the midnight oil must get to both their nerves. Usually the group was asleep by ten PM in Earth time and then would change-off for their watches; tonight they had eaten so late that they didn't get to sleep until 11:30 PM. It was now one in the morning.

"Well, listen: I can't stay awake any longer myself - this entire situation has thrown my psychological clock off or something - and I just need to do like Tai did and collapse in a heap." Sora lodged the end of her torch in a tangle of wires and an open hole of some sort that was revealed through an imperfection in the wall paneling as if it were some sort of sconce. "Seeing as you're not going to sleep anytime soon. . ."

" '. . .Will you take over for me?' " Izzy said finishing Sora's own question. "I saw that coming from the first part of sentence."

"Well, will you?"

Izzy just sat there typing as he commonly would for a second, sighed and then answered, "Sure. I'll wake the next guy-up when I plan to go to sleep." Sora stood-up and then looked down at Izzy. She stared for a second, leaned back down and then gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Don't wake-up acting like this. And don't work too late." She stood and walked over to where her 'sleeping bag' was placed on the ground.

Izzy turned about for a second from his computer and took a moment's glance at Sora with a look on his face that said 'what was that all about?'.

As Sora pulled herself under the cover of her blanket - avoiding to disturb the sleeping Yokomon aside her - closed her eyes and pulled the sheets up to her neck. Izzy may've been none-the-wiser - and then he may've been considering that it was Izzy she was talking about - but Sora knew that she kissed him just now in spite of her unknown feelings. She knew now that the feeling she got from Tai was stronger. . .much stronger. . .but she didn't know what to do next. Even worse, she couldn't tell what Izzy - one of the most quiet of the group (even out-doing Matt) - was thinking about her kiss. Maybe it wasn't right to do that to him for her own sake, she couldn't tell. She had to do something and she had another gut-feeling that whatever it was, it would be something having to do with Tai. She lapsed in sleep with indecision on her mind and the Crest around her neck silent.

*******

Izzy looked down at the clock in the lower portion of his computer's taskbar: five minutes until three in the morning. He was still typing away at the code and had covered considerable ground in two hours; he almost was past the front-line defenses of the computer network and to whatever information lie beyond. However, as tried as he was, he'd save his progress in another five minutes and turn-in to start fresh again in the morning. . .if the rain hadn't stopped by then, that was.

The once burning end of the rod that hang from the wall extinguished an hour and a half ago but Izzy still felt that he didn't need the extra light; his eyes easily could compensate to the brightness of the screen dominated by a black and light gray textbox and the darkness of the space surrounding it. His fingers moved swiftly through the veil of night over the keys as letter patterns and words meaningless to anyone but Izzy and the code alone appeared in the window, the computer every now-and-then adding in its own line. One thing Izzy had to amazed about this system besides its BASIC complexity is the fact that he hadn't hit into any 'security fire-walls' yet.

To paraphrase Confusius, Izzy mentally joked, _'Impossible to open, yet so BASIC'_.

But as Izzy was just finishing-up, his mind strayed from its solid devotion to his last-minute work. He didn't understand the ending to the last confrontation he had with Sora and it got to him. Although he usually kept quiet about himself and his personal feelings, sometimes easily mistakable for Matt, he could read others' emotions and intentions very clearly. 

At first sight at camp he could tell Tai was a 'take-control and lead' kind of person and that Matt was a very private person much like himself. Izzy could apply similar placement to each of the rest of the Digi-destined too but lately, specifically ever since the Crest incident, he felt Sora's been acting slightly 'out-of-character'. Also, he couldn't even to begin to understand the actual purpose of Sora's kissing him just a few seconds ago.

It felt less like a kiss out of happiness and more like a sort of cry of confusion. Izzy understood that all too well; there were many times he could remember being in similar confusion but that was a long time back. Why she chose to do it was even more of a puzzle to him. Very, very few people aside from members of his family - extended and nuclear - have ever kissed him. Perhaps. . .

Izzy froze-up where he sat. He stared at the stationary current line of text and saw what his mind had subconsciously typed:

__

SORA LOVES KOUSHIRO?

Immediately he pressed 'Backspace' and deleted that line before resuming his typing. What was he - or rather his mind - thinking? Sora loves Tai; it was impossible to dispute given everything Izzy had observed between the two's actions and reactions to each other and their pasts. He knew that neither would ever agree to it publicly or each other without coaching but it was undeniable. Besides he. . .

For a second time, Izzy froze where he sat. Another subconscious line had been written as he was thinking:

__

KOUSHIRO LOVES MIMI.

Izzy would've deleted that piece of subconscious information right-off when he saw it if not for one thing: it was dead right. While Izzy just mused over the line in a sort of trance, he didn't notice his finger accidentally press the 'Enter' key.

"Hey, what the. . .!?"

Just after he pressed the key, the text in the box vanished and Izzy snapped-out of his trance. After that rude-awakening he was treated to another: his laptop's speaker started to buzz and beep in low but wild noise. Izzy tried his best to muffle out the sound by covering the holed speaker-area with his palm and then tried to figure-out what was happening. He had accidentally entered this installment of data into the Network and didn't know what the result would be! His answer came in the form of a blinking red message that spread across the screen:

__

INCORRECT DATA INPUT. UNAUTHORIZED CONNECTION DETECTED.

ACTIVATING DEFENSIVE GRID.

Izzy panicked and quickly pulled his laptop away, the phone connection piece whipping out of the socket on the side of the control wall-panel. He jumped-up to his feet, knocking the rod which previously acted as a torch from the hole where it was in the wall as the lights above came on in a deep red. The rod clanked to the floor and sounded loudly against the room in many echoes.

The resonance of the metal rod clanging to the floor woke up the rest of the Digi-destined. They all woke-up just in time to see Izzy back away from the door to the center nervously with his laptop in his hands.

"Hey, Izzy, you're still up?" Tai asked as he sat-up in his 'sleeping bag'. Like the others he then looked-up at the new lighting arrangement of the room.

"Hey, what's with the blood-red tinting?" Matt asked also sitting-up.

"Blood? Where?" Joe exclaimed springing upright. "I faint at the sight of blood!"

"Huh? Mom? It noon already?" Mimi asked stretching her arms wide as she slowly came-to, obviously thinking she was back home like Tai had earlier. Palmon aside her remain unmoving.

"Guys!" Izzy said as he acknowledged both sides of the room - Mimi and Palmon on one and the rest on the other.

"What's going on, Izzy?" Tentomon asked.

"We're in serious trouble!"

As if to emphasis the validity of his statement, two formerly inconspicuous objects broke free from open sections of the wall on either side of the door, turned around and hovered out into the glow. Once fully turned about, they revealed bright crimson eyes and two obstructions on either side of their small body.

"Intruders detected!" the first crackled.

"Multiple targets sighted and locked!" the second added.

The entire room turned sharply at the two voices of the figures. Matt, Tai and their Digimon jumped-up from their sheets. The others were nervously gaping at the new entities whom they didn't know. But Izzy, Matt and Tai knew who they were. "Geardramon!" Matt exclaimed.

"GEAR STRIP!" both the Geardramon exclaimed and all four of their gears flew off the supports like frisbees. Izzy quickly took a step backwards and tripped over one of the seating pipes, eluding one of the whirling gears by mere centimeters above his nose. A second flew towards Mimi and Palmon; Mimi just hit-the-dirt - taking the limp form of Palmon down with her - and the gear harmlessly ricocheted off the wall above their heads. The last two bounced erratically into the bed area causing over-all panic as some of the Digi-destined jumped-up and others hit-the-dirt to avoid the disks; no one was hurt. All this occurred in five seconds' time.

When the gears had finally finished bouncing about the walls of the platform area and returned to their respective support struts on the Geardramon, all the Digi-destined had stood-up in preparation. Mimi held the unconscious Palmon in her arms.

"Is everyone okay?!" Sora cried-out as Yokomon bounced in her hands.

"Yeah, if you don't count lack of sleep and near-decapitation!" Mimi answered.

"Everyone: stand your ground. We can win this one", Tai said with a wave of his hand and an over-the-shoulder glance.

"SUATERING POMMEL!" And then the two gears on either side of their forms began firing hot plasma-bolts at the group in an erratic spread. Each time one of the shots hit a surface, it would erupt in an explosion no bigger than a softball apiece.

The Digi-destined had a time dodging the attack because the shots were so many and random. Mostly everyone had to duck, jump and side-step again and again to avoid getting hit. Matt grabbed TK in his arms and jumped to one-side - knocking Gabumon out of the way too - just before a large portion of the shots crashed at their feet resulting in a blast the size of a basketball. Izzy was able to block most of the shots by using the back of his laptop as a temporary blast shield; but it didn't act as a very good heat shield and he felt some of the brunt from the explosions.

"Tai, I think you should reconsider that", Izzy said while trying to hold his own. "We're too weak to. . .Yah! (he jumped over a shot as one landed right at his feet) We're too weak to win this one!"

"Okay then! Everyone, prepare to fall-back! He down the center platform."

"About time!" Mimi dodging the shots coming towards he in her own way. "I'm getting well-done over here like one of my father's hamburgers during the company picnic!"

"Tentomon, some cover here!" Izzy said as he began to back towards the central walk-way leading over the room filled with the inactive mechanical arms.

"You too Gomamon!" Joe grabbed the bag with whatever was left in it near his feet and started towards the walkway like the others were. "FISH TANK!" Gomamon shouted as a beam of water struck both Geardramon, completely soaking them and stopping their firing. Water dripped from their forms: "Warning: Liquid contamination, rust formation eventual." "SUPER SHOCKER!" Tentomon called as his electrical attack struck either of the two Geardramon, whose soaking forms increased the volatility and damage-factor of the mechanical Digimon. The attack held for three seconds and then the smoking forms of the two machines clanked lifelessly to the platform ground.

Gomamon and Tentomon decided then that it was best to turn and run (fly) when they saw that more inconspicuous Geardramon were detaching from the wall previously acting as ornaments. They fled, following their companions down the central walk-way.

Presently, two Geardramon lower right behind the Digi-destined and started to follow them along the walk-way. "Target acquired. . .SUATERING POMMEL!" Gabumon, who had managed to take-up the rear felt the heated shots colliding with the metal path almost just behind his feet. He whipped about and fired a stream of blue fire at the on-coming machines. The blue fire crashed into one of their faces and it clanked backwards to the ground, the other turning to watch it fall. The second one turned back to face Gabumon, he was in time to meet him fist first and he too was knocked reeling backwards. Gabumon resumed running as a gear crash right at his feet, just missing by half-a-foot.

Agumon frantically looked left and right watching out of attacks coming from either side that could hit Tai, who was not only the lead person in the run-away group, but just about one-two meters in front of him; Agumon inwardly cursed his short, stumpy legs. Looking ahead and upwards, Agumon saw a long cable with a hook on the end hanging from the darkness of the ceiling above. If only he could reach it, he had an idea. "Tai, give me a leg-up!"

In front of him Tai stopped and quickly leaned down, crossing his arms and placing then as close to the floor as possible. "Okay!" Agumon stepped on the center of Tai's crossed-arms and, when he weight was fully on them, Tai threw them upwards along with Agumon. Agumon sailed higher and quickly grabbed a-hold of the cable - just above the hook - before he could start to fall back down to Earth. The forward momentum he had also started the cable gliding forward through the air; it was attached to an originally unforeseen sliding-track.

"PEPPER BREATH!" Geardramon after Geardramon were hit from above by fireballs as Agumon sailed about the room on the sliding cable. The entire room soon lit-up in a frenzies of two-three fireballs striking Geardramon at a time (Agumon needed to take a short pause after he fired). When one of the flying machines got in Agumon's way, a firm, momentum-added kicked knocked it down.

"Way to go, Agumon!" Tai called, running again. He looked forward to watch where he was going - as was where the entire group was going - and then quickly started to skid to a stop. "Whoa! Brake. Brake!!"

"Hey, why we stopping, Tai?" Sora asked as she almost collided with him from behind.

"Cause we can't go any further! Look." Indeed, Tai was right. The Digi-destined had found themselves on a rectangular platform that connected and ended the walk-way. A railing ran all about it except for on section of the opposite side where a continuation of the walk-way should've been but wasn't. They were stuck there.

Joe: "No! We're trapped between a fall and a hard place!"

Mimi was frantically looking about. Back the direction they came, she noticed the Geardramon blocking the path, preparing to attack. "The way we came is blocked-off! What'll we do?"

Tai, in a usual militant voice for him, turned and said, "If we can't run, then we fight! Everyone go; stay to the ground!"

"BLUE BLASTER!"

"SUPER SHOCKER!"

"BUBBLE BLOW!"

"BOOM BUBBLE!"

"FISH TANK!"

"PEPPER BREATH!"

"GEAR STRIP!" or "SAUTERING POMMEL!"

The air-space in the room almost immediately became a battle zone as attacks from the respective Digimon started hammering away at each other. In the air, Geardramon were electrocuted, shorted-out and pommelled to near destruction while the Digi-destined fought to hold their ground, dodging the attacks at they were thrown. The ill-lit room burst into full color and light every moment or so as multiple blasts occurred. Although they were holding their own, without the help of Palmon and Biyomon the Digimon couldn't stand-up to the Geardramon; and, more of them were still appearing from the wood-works. Closer Geardramon had to be punched away from the platform by Sora, Matt and Tai. Joe was now officially panicking.

"Izzy, isn't there supposed to be a platform over there?" Tai hissed over to Izzy who was using his closed laptop as a shield and as a 'club'. Tai swung and punch another Geardramon away before it could fire its gear.

"Yes, but it must not be deployed for use by default!" Izzy answered.

"Then deploy it already!"

"Okay, okay, I'm on it!" Izzy swapped his laptop across the air in front of him and knocked a Geardramon flying erratically into a group of seven others. He looked about the platform they were on and found that there was a small slanted console with a dusty, faded green key-pad on it and three round red LEDs on it - controls of some sort. Izzy quickly put his laptop down - unsuspectingly ducking under a flying gear - and ran over to the console and began fiddling with the buttons, hoping that it worked to extend or raise a platform.

Or just work at all.

Agumon continued to swing over the heads of the Digi-destined, knocking Geardramon away left and right. The cable had reach a track was currently rolling about in a circle above the platform. He kicked-out with a foot as another Geardramon had gotten in his way. But, in doing so, he missed seeing one of the stray flying gear attacks from a Geardramon before it was too late; it landed with a sickening 'Thwack' right on his left shin. As he cringed from the pain of the landed attack and reached-down to administer it, he also failed to notice one of the Geardramon in front of him firing his plasma bolts. He wasn't hit but a randomized bolt cut through the metal cable like it were butter and momentum threw Agumon falling forward, luckily towards the platform.

Izzy was trying his best but the controls wouldn't respond at all. "They don't work! (pause as he ducked slightly to look underneath the console) Maybe there's a loose wire somewhere." "Izzy!" Agumon exclaimed. Izzy was able to look-up over the console-top just in time to see Agumon plummeting towards him uncontrollably. He quickly jumped back just in time to avoid Agumon's landing, which was on the top of the console and using his good foot, but he wasn't in time to avoid missing having the Digimon fall forward onto him. They both were knocked backwards, Izzy taking the full brunt of the fall.

"Ack!"

The console immediately started to beep, buzz and the LEDs all started blinking erratically; the jolt from Agumon's landing probably activated it. A vibration struck the platform but instead of a walk-way being extended or raised the Digi-destined had the rug pulled-out from under them. . .literally. A discolored rectangle that dominated the floor of the platform dropped open wide and threw all the Digi-destined and their Digimon into the darkness of a vertical, smooth steel-walled chute of some sort.

On the other-side of the room, Andromon was just running onto the walkway overlooking the floor from one of the outer sector's hallways. The mists of steam in the room inhibited his immediate vision but by the orientation and readings from all the Geardramon he knew where all the action was situated - on the master chute in the center of the bay. Immediately, he threw his arms wide and attacked.

"Bring missiles to position. . .FIRE!"

A panel on its chest flipped downwards and two crudely-designed missiles flew out of firing ports. They left a trail of think gray smoke as they erratically and non-uniformly soared around Geardramon and across the room to where the chute platform was. Very quickly they cut through the mists that dominated the room, cross the distance from one-side to the center and - on impact - resulted in a massive fireball and explosion. The top section of the chute and the platform were leveled almost immediately. Metal fodder crumbled down from its supports and struts and the entire ruins fell two meters to the ground of the room in flames and dust.

Andromon held his position - leaning forward and arms out-stretched - until the ruins were completely settled on the ground. But before they even had, Demidevimon caught-up with him from the hallway, having ordered him to proceed ahead without him. He immediately looked at the wreckage falling to the ground out in the room, now very visible even through the mists, and then at the screen on the remote in his claws. Then, with an angered face, Demidevimon whipped the edge of the remote across the side of Andromon's plated head with a loud 'Clank'.

"You mindless incompetent of a tin-can! They weren't even on the platform when you turned it into metal cinders!!" Demidevimon barked.

Andromon just turned his head to look at the flying bowling-ball head of a Digimon and, after a second, let his arms drop limp to his sides in exasperation. The missile-port covering panel on his chest hinged closed with an audible, mechanical whirl of servos.

"They fell down the main loading chute, genius!" Demidevimon continued starting to fiddle with the controls on the remote with his other claw. "You know that we can't tell if that particular chute is still in working order, let alone where that thing goes anymore even if it IS complete!" After a few button presses and adjustments of the analog joysticks, three Geardramon hovered-up before him waiting for orders.

"My orders were to engage and destroy the Digi-destined", Andromon answered drone. "I did not have parameters not to risk damage to the compound in the process."

"Aw, just shut-up! I have to do everything for you or I just get in worse shape!"

Andromon leaned back up-right and Demidevimon turned to face the three Geardramon. 

"Okay, you three dumb-bells", the small winged Digimon said to them with an annoyed voice. "Start excavating that disaster site over there the best you can; figure where the heck those children and their Digimon could've gotten to from that chute!" The three Geardramon spun their gears once creating the sound of an engine whine as if in acknowledgement and they turned to hover away, to go about their task. "Hey, wait a minute, number 93! Come back here!"

One of the Geardramon stopped hovering away and swiftly returned to the edge of the railing where Demidevimon had called him back.

"You have other plans for me, master operative Demimon?"

Demidevimon sighed. "Never-mind about my name. I want you to take a message to outer sector 'A' and tell those piles of skin and bones that I want to see all three in the plant in my office ASAP!" Demidevimon then beckoned the Geardramon to come closer and he whispered the message to it. After he was done, the Geardramon backed-up and nodded exaggeratedly.

"Yes, Sir. Message acknowledge and stored."

"Use the _subter._ levels to get the message there. And tell them to use the same route to come here too!"

"Affirmative."

With that, the Geardramon lowered itself until it was right above the floor and facing the open grating of a service duct that Matt, Tai and Izzy had previously used to get around the factory. It flew into the duct and vanished about the corner to go about it's mission.

Demidevimon then turned back to the hallway and began flying back down it. Geardramon were just using spotlights from their eyes and some sort of fire precaution streaming out of their gears to examine the wreckage and extinguish the remaining flames. Other Geardramon examined what the children left behind on the main platform entering the room.

Demidevimon turned. "Well, what do you think you're waiting for, you over-size lout! Com'mon! I need to get back to the CPU where I can monitor this mess of yours better!"

"Yes. . .Demimon."

Andromon mechanically sighed and turned around slowly, clanking his feet against the metal floor panels and following the flying Digimon back to the master control chamber. The Andromon followed the other Digimon without will into the hallway showing nothing but a blank stare and a black, alien protrusion from his back.

*******

Well, hope you're enjoying read this [long] story so far. Trust me: it gets better. Who's story do you want to hear first: Tai and Sora or Izzy and Mimi? Joe, Matt and TK's story I'm saving for later. Okay. . .I'll blunt: this is going to be a Tai/Sora and Izzy/Mimi story (wow, anyone see that one coming?). As for you 'Matt-couple' fans out there, I can't say anything except "sorry but wait around for my next series".

Oh, and in reply to the reviewer suggestion that 'oil' is the product the factory manufactures: the answer is 'no'. Oil is refined, not manufactured. So, can **you** guess what this plant manufactures?

--Fate--

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[Legal Mumbo-Jumbo: Like all of you out there, I do not own Digimon - never have and never will. Digimon: Digital Monsters © TOEI Animation, Bandai and FoxKids. I do not own [Fanfiction.net][2]_ either; I am only affiliated with it. "Fish Tank" is an actual attack of Gomamon so I do not own the copyrights to that either. Reading any portion of this disclaimer - verbally or mentally - removes any right you may've had to sue or flame me.]_

   [1]: fate445687@aol.com
   [2]: Fanfiction.net



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